Expert: Gains for small firms from tax, fee cuts

The country's better-than-expected job creation last year was partly attributable to the large-scale tax and fee cuts, Bai said. Last year, 11.86 million new jobs were created in China's urban areas, notably exceeding the government's expected goal of more than 9 million, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Bai's words echoed Finance Minister Liu Kun's interview with the Xinhua News Agency published earlier this month, during which he said that China will maintain a proper strength of tax and fee cuts this year to help hard-hit businesses.

Bai said he expected stepped-up efforts this year to further elevate the efficiency of proactive fiscal policy, underlining the need to achieve effective macro adjustments while maintaining debt sustainability.

The country's fiscal income is expected to resume growth this year after a slide last year. Fiscal income may still feel some pressure amid continuous tax cuts and economic uncertainties, which will highlight the need to make fiscal spending more efficient, he said.

The Central Economic Work Conference held in December said that a proactive fiscal policy must be implemented in a manner that is of higher quality, more effective and more sustainable.

The government is expected to optimize the structure of spending to target expenditure more on addressing weak links and the areas with high positive spillovers, and to ensure the quality of government-funded projects via strengthened management, Bai said.

The use of the mechanism of directly channeling fiscal funds into the primary level of government is expected to be broadened this year, he added.

China's proactive fiscal policy provided strong support in countering economic headwinds and addressing weak links in social development such as poverty alleviation last year, Bai said.