The strength of a country can be assessed in various ways, including population size, military equipment, economic scale, land area, level of industrialization, and high-tech expertise, among others. These are all important factors.
However, one often overlooked factor is a country's fiscal revenue.
Although money is printed by the government, it doesn't mean the government can freely dispose of it.
On the contrary, it needs to use these funds in a rational manner and ensure their circulation to maintain the currency's value.
Otherwise, printing excessive currency will only lead to inflation and currency devaluation.
Fiscal revenue directly impacts a country's strength.
If the entire population is prosperous but the treasury cannot provide any financial support, the country is unlikely to be considered powerful.
So, how much is China's annual fiscal revenue? Where does this revenue come from, and where will it be used?
Firstly, social security revenue is one of the sources.
This revenue is closely related to everyone.
China's social security includes basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance, medical insurance, and maternity insurance, each of which contributes to the national income.
Although hundreds of millions of people participate in social security in China each year, it's reported that the revenue from old-age, unemployment, and work injury insurance far exceeds the expenditure, indicating that social security isn't losing money every year.
Secondly, revenue from state-owned capital operation, which includes the income of state-owned enterprises, such as operating income, stock profits, and transfer income, among others.
Although some state-owned enterprises are profitable, many others have little profit.
For example, the railway bureau suffers losses year after year, partly due to the high cost of building railways, and railways primarily serve social needs rather than profit-making.
Government fund revenue is also an important part, including revenue from land sales, urban infrastructure supporting fees, vehicle tolls, and lottery revenue, among others.
In recent years, due to the slowdown in infrastructure construction and stabilization of the real estate market, government fund revenue has declined.
Finally, there is revenue from general public funds, including tax revenue and non-tax revenue.
Tax revenue includes personal income tax, import tax, value-added tax, corporate income tax, and consumption tax, while non-tax revenue includes fines, bank revenue, and donations, among others.
These revenues are mainly used for military equipment, government employee salaries, as well as education, scientific research, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, and healthcare, among other areas.
In 2023, China's fiscal revenue saw some growth, with general public budget revenue reaching $3 trillion, with taxes accounting for the majority, while non-tax revenue slightly decreased.
Local government expenditure reached $3.5 trillion, including various infrastructure construction projects.
The decline in government fund budget revenue is mainly due to the slowdown in infrastructure development. The growth in revenue from state-owned enterprises is not significant compared to other projects.
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