Economy/Resources - 199. page

On October 31, 2012, Securities Times published a report on the National Bureau of Statistics of China’s recently released statistics on China’s revenues. According to the statistics, during the 10 years from 2002 to 2011, the personal disposable income of urban residents increased 1.8 times. In the same period, national fiscal revenue increased 4.5 times and domestic GDP went up 3.6 times. “This wide gap shows that during the past 10 years, most of the newly created wealth was distributed outside the reach of China’s residents. Considering the multiple of 4.5 times in the increase in fiscal revenue, it can be said that the government received a much larger share of the benefits than ordinary residents. In fact, on average, urban residents’ income increased by 10 percent per annum, while fiscal revenue went up by as much as 20 percent per annum.”

Source: Securities Times, October 31, 2012
http://news.stcn.com/content/2012-10/31/content_7280245.htm

Qiu Xiaoping, vice minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, disclosed that a reform will take place in managing the pay scale in state owned enterprises. Tighter control will be exercised over high-income professions.

Qiu stated that the Ministry needs to establish a reasonable control over income allocation and set up a minimum wage standard and rate of increase for wages. The Ministry also needs to build an infrastructure system to conduct pay scale research and information sharing while building a pay scale database for companies to use as a reference.

According to statistics, from 2002 to 2011, the average salary in urban regions grew 14.63 percent from 12,422 yuan (US $1,990) to 42,452 yuan (US $6,802). Farm workers have become the main workforce reaching 252 million in 2011. It was also disclosed that certain high ranking managers in state owned enterprises make a million or even a billion yuan in annual salary. It was suggested that their income shouldn’t be higher than three times the salary of those in a public servant position ranked at the same level.

Source: People’s Daily, October 31, 2012
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2012/1031/c1001-19442054.html

The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP) announced that the China Public Procurement website (http://www.china-cpp.com/) has been officially established, with headquarters in Wuhan, Hubei Province. It is considered the world’s largest online trading and service center.

According to Chen Yuanzhong, Vice Chairman of the CFLP, government procurement in 2011 was 11.3 trillion yuan (US$1.8 trillion), which accounted for 11 percent of total fiscal spending. However, government procurement is not regulated and lacks transparency and efficiency. China’s procurement market would reach 50 trillion yuan (US$8 trillion) if spending on education, health, housing, railroad, transportation, and energy were included. This number makes China the largest procurement market in the world.

Source: Xinhua, November 4, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2012-11/04/c_113597255.htm

Xinhua carried an article that was originally published by Sichuan Daily. The article reported that the foreign luxury goods in China’s market are priced 45 percent higher than those sold in Hong Kong, 51 percent higher than in the U.S. and 72 percent higher than in France. The higher price occurs mainly because of of the markup from various sales channels and because of the tariffs imposed on luxury goods.

Meanwhile, products that are “Made in China” are priced lower in overseas markets than in the domestic market. One of the reasons stated was that China sets the export price of the goods at the manufacturer’s cost. Manufacturer’s profits come mainly from tax rebates. Another factor that drives up the domestic cost is the higher transportation expense. According to the article, Chinese consumers tend to favor foreign imported items because of the better quality. They lack trust in domestic made products.

Source: Xinhua, November 4, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2012-11/04/c_113597301.htm

The Ministry of Finance’s statistics show that the fiscal revenue for January-September was 9.1 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion), an increase of 892.5 billion (US$143 billion) or 10.9% over the same period last year and 18.6 percent points lower than the growth for the same period last year. The tax revenue was 7.7 trillion yuan (US$1.2 trillion), a year-over-year increase of 8.6 percent, down 18.8 percent from the same period last year.

According to an official from the Ministry, since the beginning of this year, due to the downward macroeconomic pressure, the local fiscal revenue growth turned weak. To compensate for the gap, non-tax revenues, or various types of fees, are becoming an increasing source of fiscal revenue.

For the first three quarters of 2012, the non-tax revenue in many provinces and cities has grown far more than the tax revenue. Tianjin saw an increase in non-tax revenue (54.75%) that was more than 40 percentage points higher than the increase in tax revenue (10.86%); Anhui’s non-tax revenue (52.1%) increased more than 30 percentage points more than tax revenue (15.3%); Guangdong had non-tax revenue (25.89%) growing higher than the tax revenue (8.15%) of nearly 18 percentage points. In some places, imposing fines has become an important part of the non-tax revenue.

Source: Nanfang Weekend, October 30, 2012
http://www.infzm.com/content/82459