What is the current central and local budgeting method in China?

Centralized treasury receipt and payment system is a common treasury management system in market economy countries. Through long-term public finance management practice, it has been proved to be an effective fiscal treasury management system in many market economy countries, especially in western developed countries. The implementation of this system can fundamentally and effectively avoid all kinds of drawbacks of the current payment and distribution model of financial funds in China, and is of great significance to strengthening the management and supervision of financial funds and establishing a public financial management system under the conditions of socialist market economy. Today, I will briefly introduce the reform of the centralized treasury payment system from five aspects. 1. What is the reform of centralized treasury payment system? The reform of the national treasury management system is an important part of the public finance management framework under the socialist market economy system. It runs through the whole process of public financial management and is an important part of financial management system reform. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance to this. The "Decision" of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee clearly requires "to implement and improve the centralized treasury collection and payment system"; The Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development adopted by the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress lists "reforming the treasury management system and establishing a modern treasury centralized receipt and payment system based on the treasury single account system" as an important content of the Tenth Five-Year Plan; The Seventh Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Fourth Clean Government Work Conference in the State Council demanded that the centralized treasury collection and payment system should be established as a fundamental measure to combat corruption and promote clean government. In 2003, the Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision of the CPC Central Committee, in the "Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening and Doing a Good Job in Combating Corruption and Promoting Honesty", once again demanded that "all localities should intensify the reform of centralized receipt and payment of treasury". So what is the national treasury centralized payment system? According to the requirements of the "Pilot Program of Fiscal Treasury Management System Reform" approved by the State Council, the goal of fiscal treasury system reform is: during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, according to the requirements of public financial management, establish and improve a modern treasury management system based on the treasury single account system with centralized receipt and payment of funds as the main form throughout the country. Therefore, it can be understood that the centralized treasury receipt and payment system refers to a modern treasury management system based on the treasury single account system, in which all fiscal revenues are directly paid to the treasury or special fiscal accounts, and all fiscal expenditures are paid to the payee or user by direct payment and authorized payment through the treasury single account system when payment occurs. That is to say: income is unified into a "cage" and unified into a financial cage, including various financial accounts such as the national treasury and extra-budgetary accounts, land accounts and so on. What is the difference between spending an export and going out from the national treasury or financial special account when the expenditure behavior occurs? First, the income is collected in a unified and centralized manner, and transitional households are not allowed, let alone self-built accounts; The expenditure mode has changed the traditional appropriation mode, from the current mode of first allocation and then allocation to the current mode of first allocation and then allocation. The current expenditure model is a conceptual direct payment model. Take the payment basis and finance as a cashier for you. First use and then dial is a financial authorization payment method. To put it simply, the financial authorization unit uses the money first, and the bank pays the bill for the unit first. After payment, the finance department will settle with the bank. Because financial authorization is required after the first use, the use of useful money plan and quota will be introduced later.

To decompose the concept of centralized treasury receipt and payment system, we need to understand three major contents, namely, one goal, one foundation and two reforms: the reform of treasury management system is to achieve one goal, that is, to establish a modern treasury management system; Realize a foundation-that is, reform the traditional account system and establish a single account system for the national treasury; Do a good job in two reforms-the reform of expenditure payment method and the reform of income collection method. Second, why should we implement the centralized treasury payment system? Even in the financial dictionary, the centralized treasury receipt and payment system is a little-known word, but this system has been implemented in market economy countries for many years, generally known as the treasury single account system. Before introducing this issue, let's analyze the differences between Chinese and western treasury management systems to understand the scientific nature of Chinese and western management concepts. 1, national treasury system. China's national treasury system has long adopted the entrusted national treasury system. In the history of China, every dynasty and generation set up a national treasury. Before the late Qing Dynasty, officials at all levels were directly in charge, and many warehouses were set up. Generally, the main officials were in charge themselves, until the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1908, the Qing government began to change the warehouse of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development into the Bank of anniversary, and decided to let the National Bank manage the treasury business, and concluded a "unified treasury charter", which was changed to the Bank of China in 19 12. It was not until the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) that 1950 promulgated the Regulations on the Central Treasury, 1985 promulgated the Regulations on the Treasury of People's Republic of China (PRC), renamed the "Treasury" as "Treasury" and made it clear that the People's Bank of China would manage the Treasury, and 1995 promulgated the Law on the People's Bank of China. The establishment of Chinese and western treasury institutions is different: the establishment of treasury institutions in western countries is generally divided into two types: first, there are separate treasury institutions, such as the United States, Britain, Italy, etc. The other is that the national treasury is located in the Ministry of Finance, as a subordinate institution of the Ministry of Finance, such as France and Japan. Since the establishment of the People's Bank of China, China's national treasury has been set up in commercial banks, where there is no People's Bank. This institutional setup makes financial fund management only a subsidiary business of the People's Bank of China. In addition, in some local people's banks, it is difficult to ensure the quality and efficiency of financial fund management because of the gap between treasury staffing and professional quality. As far as the function of the national treasury is concerned, the national treasury in western countries is not only the national treasury, but more importantly, it controls the government budget, including extra-budgetary funds, formulates government financing policies on behalf of the government and is responsible for the issuance and management of national debt. The function of the national treasury has developed from the traditional "national treasury" management to macro-financial management and micro-financial control, including controlling funds inside and outside the government budget, managing government cash and debts, handling government payments, and developing and maintaining corresponding management information systems. In fact, it is fully fulfilling the functions of financial management. For example, the British Treasury is an independent major department, which is responsible for the planning and management of public expenditure in Britain, and also undertakes the responsibility of controlling government debt and managing central financial accounts. The Australian Ministry of Finance is mainly responsible for macro management, specifically responsible for fiscal revenue, tax policy and financial financing, making suggestions on tax and fiscal expenditure policies, and participating in the coordination and formulation of monetary policy, industrial policy and economic development strategy. The management function of the French national treasury is the responsibility of the public audit office of the Ministry of Finance. Its main responsibilities are to control government funds, including extra-budgetary funds, formulate government financing policies, and be responsible for the issuance and management of national debt.

In China, according to the Regulations of People's Republic of China (PRC) Treasury (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations of the Treasury), the People's Bank of China specifically manages the Treasury. Organizing and managing the national treasury is an important duty of the People's Bank of China. The main responsibility of the national treasury is to handle the receipt, division, declaration, disbursement and settlement of state budget funds, and reflect the implementation of budget revenue and expenditure to the higher-level treasury and the financial organ at the same level. It can be seen that China's national treasury has obvious agency nature of receiving and paying financial funds. This agency nature shows that China's national treasury is still in the traditional sense. 2. Treasury receipt and payment operating system. At present, China implements a centralized treasury receipt and payment system, that is, based on the establishment of multiple deposit accounts by the financial department, the budget department (head) and the budget unit, the financial department collects budget revenue by means of local remittance and centralized remittance according to the budget arrangement, and directly transfers financial funds from the treasury to the account opened by the competent department or the budget department through the People's Bank of China, and transfers the funds to the bank account opened by the budget unit in the commercial bank through the budget department, and each budget unit is implemented according to the regulations. At the end of the year, the financial department reports the appropriation through the preparation of accounting statements. The operating mechanism of treasury management in western market economy countries is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the establishment of a single treasury account. For example, in France, the procedures for receiving and reporting the revenue of the national treasury are as follows: the taxpayer declares to the tax administration department, and if there is no difference, the taxpayer pays the tax to the tax authority or any bank by cheque, and the cheque is directly transferred to the single account of the national treasury through the bank clearing system. In France, all receipts and payments of treasury funds are made through a single treasury account opened by the Ministry of Finance in the central bank. A single treasury account concentrates all government cash resources (including taxes and other budgetary revenues, as well as various extra-budgetary funds) in the central bank account, and it is not allowed to open accounts in other banks. The treasury classified account is used in conjunction with the single account, that is, the treasury opens separate accounts for all government expenditure departments to record the changes of government funds and the use of funds by various government expenditure departments and institutions, and provide relevant information to the government. When actual payment is involved, it shall be handled through a single account of the national treasury. The management of national treasury expenditure follows the principle of absolute separation between management decision makers and expenditure handlers. The second is the centralized government expenditure model. In order to strengthen the management of cash expenditure, the expenditure method of controlling the actual expenditure funds is implemented when paying, that is, only when the treasury funds are actually paid to commodity suppliers or service providers will the funds be transferred out of the treasury single account. The specific payment procedure can be summarized as four stages: (1) the expenditure department signs a contract to buy goods or pay labor services; (2) The expenditure department examines the supplier's invoice and calculates the actual amount that should be paid by the state treasury; (3) The expenditure department submits a payment application to the State Treasury with relevant vouchers, and the State Treasury will review and issue payment instructions; (4) The cashier's office or cashier's office actually pays the funds in the single account of the national treasury to the supplier through the bank clearing system. In this mode, the expenditure department purchases goods (or services) from suppliers according to the expenditure budget, and when it is confirmed that the goods or services have been obtained, the national treasury will pay them directly to the suppliers after approval. Although the expenditure department has the expenditure authority, it can't actually control the funds, and the centralized payment by the state treasury makes up for the loopholes in the management of extra-budgetary funds. At the same time, the increase or decrease of expenditure budget between expenditure departments and the budget "appropriation" of expenditure departments to their subordinate departments do not cause the actual payment of treasury funds. In order to prevent possible collusion between expenditure departments and suppliers, one is to strengthen the control of expenditure budget, and the other is to implement the government procurement system to improve the openness and transparency of the expenditure process, so as to achieve comprehensive and strict control of budgetary funds and effectively ensure the implementation of the treasury management function.

In China, because there is no single treasury account, the collection, declaration and payment of treasury funds are mainly carried out through the establishment of multiple accounts by tax authorities and budget units. From the process of payment control, the payment control of government expenditure in China is limited to the actual stage of payment responsibility. As long as the application of the expenditure department meets the expenditure budget, the state treasury will allocate funds. The allocated funds first flow to the expenditure department, and then the expenditure department transfers them to the suppliers, instead of directly flowing to the commodity suppliers. The disadvantage of this decentralized payment model is that once the financial funds are allocated, they are controlled by the expenditure department, which easily leads to fund precipitation, softening budget constraints, fund waste, out-of-control expenditure, private accounts, interception of funds and various corruption phenomena. The outstanding problems are: (1) fiscal fund management is decentralized, and multiple accounts are repeatedly decentralized, resulting in low transparency of fiscal revenue and expenditure, and a large number of government funds are separated from budget management and financial management supervision; (2) The financial funds are collected and handed over at different levels, the collection and management in the implementation of income is not strict, the return of funds is not standardized, and the phenomenon of financial revenue loss is quite common; (3) the allocation of funds in expenditure execution. On the one hand, there are many links in the payment and settlement of financial funds, which leads to the rapid expansion of financial credit, and commercial banks blindly "pull and save" competition, which increases the national cost. On the other hand, a large number of financial funds are stranded in various budget units, which not only reduces the efficiency of fund use, but also becomes a hotbed for breeding and inducing corruption; (4) Financial information feedback is slow, and it is difficult to effectively and timely monitor the budget implementation process.

3. Management concept. We analyze Chinese and western management concepts from the orientation of treasury function to specific operation. The centralized treasury payment system is implemented under the market economy system. The differences between China and the West in the establishment, management and operation mechanism of treasury institutions are fundamentally caused by the differences in management concepts. After hundreds of years of development, western market economy countries have formed a set of systematic new concepts of modern treasury management. Such as market orientation, advocating the rule of law, paying attention to efficiency, pursuing efficiency, system control, compliance and trustworthiness. These advanced management concepts have become the common code of conduct for the government and the public, and run through all aspects of financial management in a systematic way. However, the current mode of payment and distribution of financial funds in China is formed under the planned economy system, the government funds are not standardized, and the "bill" budget, total budget, summary budget and document budget are widespread. This arbitrariness of budget preparation directly leads to nonstandard budget implementation and weakened supervision by the NPC. In this case, the centralized treasury payment system is difficult to implement. At the request of the state, the "sunshine finance" embodied in the centralized treasury payment system is short-lived. From the specific operation point of view, changing the scattered multiple accounts in the traditional mode and setting up a single account system will touch the interests of many parties: First, the budget unit has two major complaints: First, the complicated practice of applying for direct payment for many times for a long time makes the budget unit feel uncomfortable; The second is to cancel the allocation first and then use it. There is no deposit in the bank account of the budget unit, so there is no interest, and some accounting deposits cannot bind the bank. Second, the establishment of a single account directly leads to the inability of commercial banks to "pull reserves" and the competitiveness of commercial banks in financial funds is reduced. At the same time, the workload of the People's Bank of China is facing the payment and settlement of thousands of households, which is more difficult and the workload is doubled. Third, the reform of finance itself has brought about the adjustment of functions, the increase of business workload, the aggravation of responsibilities, etc., all of which require the renewal of management concepts, which itself includes the concepts of budget seriousness, compliance, legitimacy and advocating the rule of law. These do not meet the objective requirements of the socialist market economic system, nor do they meet the inherent requirements of building public finance and benefit finance in China. According to the theory of public finance, all financial revenue and expenditure activities must conform to the two principles of fairness and efficiency. Obviously, the reform of centralized treasury collection and payment system is consistent with the requirements of establishing public finance framework. The reform of China's centralized treasury payment system is mainly based on the following considerations: 1. The system of centralized treasury receipt and payment is an important part of establishing the public finance management system under the condition of socialist market economy. Because the centralized treasury payment system runs through the whole process of public financial management, it can not only control the budget implementation process by monitoring the inflow and outflow of financial funds from various public institutions, but also provide accurate basis for budgeting and formulating various financial policies. Therefore, the centralized treasury receipt and payment system is the fundamental system of budget implementation, and it is also an important guarantee for establishing scientific and standardized departmental budgets and strengthening financial supervision.

2. The centralized treasury collection and payment system is an effective means to improve the scientific and legal degree of financial management. The centralized treasury receipt and payment system requires that the collection method of fiscal revenue, the destination of fiscal expenditure and the payment method must be based on the legal system, which requires a reasonable definition of the scope of duties of tax collection organs, financial departments, budget units, the central bank treasury and agency banks, and the implementation of scientific and standardized management. From the inside of the financial department, it is a self-revolution to separate budget, implementation and supervision; From the perspective of the relationship between departments, the financial department, the budget unit and the agency bank all hold unified and standardized revenue and expenditure account books that can be checked with each other in the whole process of financial fund operation, which makes the budget implementation more standardized and transparent. From the perspective of budget units, the centralized treasury collection and payment system, as the main body of budget execution, requires budget units to strengthen financial management, scientifically, accurately and meticulously prepare departmental budgets and expenditure plans, and collect and use financial funds according to standardized procedures, so as to organically combine financial management with unit business development.

3. The centralized treasury collection and payment system is a reliable guarantee to improve the efficiency of financial funds and reduce the cost of financial financing. After the implementation of the centralized treasury payment system, the financial funds of budget units are concentrated in the treasury single account system, which is conducive to the financial department to strengthen the unified dispatch and management of financial funds. At the same time, because the unused funds of the budget unit are stored in the single account of the national treasury, the financial department can operate the surplus national treasury funds according to law, which can not only effectively reduce the financial financing cost, but also increase the value of the national treasury funds, thereby increasing the fiscal revenue.

4. The centralized treasury receipt and payment system is the fundamental measure to strengthen financial supervision and prevent corruption. After the implementation of the centralized treasury payment system, the retention time of funds in the budget unit can be reduced or eliminated from the mechanism. At the same time, through the new expenditure procedure and networking with the zero-balance account of the budget unit, every grass-roots budget unit and every expenditure can be inquired and supervised, which realizes the transformation of the whole process of financial supervision from post-event inspection to post-event audit supervision, real-time monitoring and post-event performance evaluation, which is conducive to preventing corruption from the source.

Third, the operation mode of China's centralized treasury receipt and payment system. China's centralized treasury collection and payment system mainly absorbs the advanced experience of the United States, Britain and Italy. In specific modules: First, the American payment plan system, financial authorization system and direct audit system are adopted for large-sum payment, but the American payment plan is issued by the president's office, while China is directly issued by the financial department. It is worthwhile to implement two-level audit system (management department certification officer and payment center certification officer) for large payment. Second, it adopts the British direct payment items such as salary expenditure, government procurement expenditure and small expenditure (paid by special cheque in the general ledger). Third, the Italian account setting form and the "four" procedure of fund payment are adopted, that is, the first level of two-level accounts is a single treasury account, and the first level is an agent income account and an agent expenditure account of commercial banks. Their agency income account is determined by bidding, agency expenditure account is determined by the expenditure unit in the designated commercial bank, and the payment procedure is determined by the difference between the first-level budget and the second-level budget unit in the four stages of application, review, payment and liquidation. The first-level unit will be liquidated on the same day, and the second-level budget unit will be liquidated in three days. The fund guarantee is the agent income. (I) Operation Mode of the Ministry of Finance According to the basic development requirements of the fiscal treasury management system, the main contents of the reform of the fiscal treasury management system promoted by the Ministry of Finance include: 1, and the establishment of a treasury single account system. The financial department should open a single treasury account in the People's Bank of China, and set up a detailed account according to income and expenditure. Income accounts should be accounted for in detail according to budget subjects, and expenditure accounts should be set up in detail according to the nature of fund use; Open a zero-balance account in a commercial bank according to the nature of the use of funds; Open a zero-balance account of the budget unit in a commercial bank; Open a special financial account for extra-budgetary funds in commercial banks, and set up a detailed account according to the income and expenditure situation; Open a petty cash account for the budget unit in a commercial bank; A transitional special account approved by the people's government of the State Council and the provincial level or authorized by the financial department. The treasury single account is a treasury deposit account, which is used to record, calculate and reflect the financial revenue and expenditure activities included in the budget management, and liquidate with the zero-balance account opened by the financial department in commercial banks to realize receipt and payment; The zero-balance account of the financial department is used for direct financial payment and expenditure settlement with the single account of the national treasury; The zero-balance account of the budget unit is used for financial authorization payment and liquidation; The special financial account of extra-budgetary funds is used to record, calculate and reflect the income and expenditure activities of extra-budgetary funds, and is used for the daily income and expenditure liquidation of extra-budgetary funds; Petty cash account, which is used to record, calculate and reflect the sporadic expenditure activities of budget units, and to settle accounts with the state treasury; The special account is used for recording, accounting and reflecting the special expenditure activities of the budget unit, and clearing with the single account of the state treasury. The above-mentioned accounts and special accounts shall be consistent with the accounting of the financial department and its payment executing agency, the treasury department of the People's Bank of China and the budget unit, and check the relevant accounting records with each other. After the establishment of the treasury single account system, all kinds of income transition accounts will be cancelled accordingly. The financial funds of the budget unit are gradually all included in the management of the national treasury single account. On the basis of establishing and perfecting the modern bank payment system and financial management information system, all financial funds will be accounted for by the single account of the state treasury, and the daily payment and settlement business will be handled by the zero-balance accounts of various departments in commercial banks. 2. Standardize tax procedures. The collection of fiscal revenue is divided into direct payment from the state treasury and centralized remittance. Direct payment from the state treasury means that according to the relevant laws and regulations, the payer or payer will directly pay the payable income into the single account of the state treasury or the financial special account of extra-budgetary funds. Centralized remittance refers to small decentralized taxes and other payable income stipulated by law, which are collected by the tax collection authorities on the day of collection and paid into the single account of the state treasury or the financial special account of extra-budgetary funds. 3, clear the type of fiscal expenditure. According to the needs of payment management, it is divided into: wage expenditure, that is, wage expenditure of budget units; Purchase expenditure, that is, the budget unit purchases services, goods, engineering projects and other expenditures other than wages and sporadic expenditures, such as engineering expenditures and government procurement expenditures; Sporadic expenditure, that is, a small part of the daily procurement expenditure of the budget unit, expenditure other than those listed in the classification table of government procurement projects, or expenditure listed in the classification table of government procurement projects, but not reaching the specified amount; Transfer expenditure does not specify the specific purpose of expenditure, including enterprise subsidies and fund allocation without specified purpose, as well as general transfer payment from the central government to the local government. 4. Define the financial payment method. According to different payment subjects, direct financial payment and authorized financial payment are implemented for different types of expenditures. Direct financial payment refers to the payment instruction issued by the financial department, and the financial funds are directly paid to the account of the payee or user through the treasury single account system. The expenditures directly paid by the finance include: ① salary expenditures; (2) government procurement expenditure, (3) transfer expenditure, including special transfer payments from the central government to local governments, tax refund in general transfer payments, subsidies from the original system, transfer payments during the transition period, settlement subsidies, subsidies to enterprises and some special expenditures with unclear procurement contents. Financial authorization payment means that the budget unit issues payment instructions by itself according to financial authorization, and pays the funds to the payee's account through the treasury single account system. Expenditure with financial authorization includes procurement expenditure and sporadic expenditure without direct financial payment. 5. Standardize financial payment procedures. Financial payment procedures include: financial direct payment procedures. The budget unit shall, according to the approved departmental budget and fund use plan, apply for payment to the executor of the financial treasury. After the executor of financial treasury payment examines the payment application according to the approved departmental budget and fund use plan and relevant requirements, he issues a payment instruction to the agent bank, and the agent bank pays the payee's bank account through the financial zero-balance account established in the agent bank according to the payment instruction, and then informs the Treasury Department of the People's Bank of China to enter the national bank clearing system through the agent bank for real-time liquidation, and the financial funds are transferred from the single treasury account to the financial zero balance. Financial authorization payment procedure. The budget unit shall, according to the approved departmental budget and fund use plan, apply to the financial treasury payment executing agency for the monthly payment limit authorized to pay, and the financial treasury payment executing agency shall notify the agency bank and the budget unit of the approved limit, and notify the Treasury Department of the People's Bank of China. The budget unit will issue the payment instruction by itself within the monthly payment limit, and after the settlement of the single account of the agent bank and the national treasury, it will pay the payee according to the total amount of the payment executing agency. 6. Promote budget preparation reform, refine budget preparation, and fully implement departmental budget system. The centralized treasury payment system is implemented on the basis of departmental budget. The finer the budget, the clearer the payment. The centralized treasury collection and payment system needs to be refined to the "project level" of the budget. Only by refining the budget can the items to be paid be clear and the financial department can implement real-time supervision. Department budget is the basic organizational form of financial budget management in market economy countries. It is based on the comprehensive financial budget, according to the comprehensive financial situation, according to the order of personal part, public part and career development, using advanced technical means, compiled by the budget department, audited and summarized by the financial department, forming a complete budget covering all revenue and expenditure of the budget department. The department budget takes the department as the basic unit of budget preparation, which cancels the intermediate link between finance and departments. Budgets are compiled from departments, and the budgets of secondary units under departments are all concentrated in department management: the budget should be implemented in every specific department, and the budget management should be based on departments, changing the practice of centralized management of financial funds according to their nature and functions, and uniformly compiling all kinds of financial funds with different natures to the departments that use these funds. The budget of a department should fully reflect the income and expenditure of the department. )