Beijing's Fiscal Revenue Expected to Top $11b

Beijing's fiscal revenue is expected to top 90 billion yuan (11 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005, up 20 percent over last year, the municipal finance bureau said Friday.

Latest figures released by the bureau say the city's fiscal revenues over the past five years have totaled 321.9 billion yuan (40 billion U.S. dollars), an average annual rise of 25.1 percent.

The rapid rise in fiscal revenues has boosted the city's social and economic development, said Wu Shixiong, chief of the municipal finance bureau, at a financial conference.

He said Beijing's fiscal expenditure also expanded from 56 billion yuan (7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2001 to 104.42 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005, an average annual rise of 18.8 percent.

Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing has predicted China's government revenues are expected to top 3 trillion yuan (370 billion U.S. dollars) this fiscal year, up more than 15 percent over last year's 2.6 trillion yuan (321 billion U.S. dollars).