China under pressure to meet fiscal revenue budget target

China's Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei takes questions from journalists at a news conference during the ongoing two sessions in Beijing, March 6, 2015. [Wang Jing / chinadaily.com.cn]

BEIJING - The Chinese government is under high pressure to meet its budget target for central fiscal revenue this year, finance minister Lou Jiwei warned on Sunday, citing slowing fiscal revenue growth.

The central treasury received 2.95 trillion yuan (about $475 billion) from January to May, a year-on-year growth of two percent, Lou said when briefing lawmakers on a State Council report on the final accounts for 2014.

The increase is far below the previously budgeted growth rate of five percent.

Total national fiscal revenue reached 6.43 trillion yuan in the same period, up 3.1 percent year on year.

Chinese economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years. This year's growth target is set at approximately 7 percent.

The government has resorted to reform and structural optimization for stronger growth, said Lou.

"With the new growth engines still in the making, external demand contracting and internal contradictions aggregating, there has been considerable downward pressure on the economy," he said.

That, among other factors, has put the central government under "considerable pressure to meet its fiscal revenue target ... for the rest of the year," Lou said.

The finance minister, meanwhile, said the government has undertaken a series of measures to steady growth and restructure the economy. Some measures "have worked, or are working," Lou said.

The government will stick to the strategic development blueprint of the "Four Comprehensives" and focus on achieving the dual objectives of "maintaining medium-high growth and moving toward medium-high development," he said.

The State Council report was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) at its ongoing bi-monthly session, presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

In 2014, the general public budget revenue grew 7.1 percent year on year to 6.45 trillion yuan, while the expediture rose 8.3 percent to 7.42 trillion yuan, the report read.