On March 5, the 2025 government budget draft and budget report were submitted to the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress for review.

Reviewing and approving budgets is an important power granted to the National People's Congress by laws such as the Constitution and the Budget Law, and an important agenda for the meetings of the People's Congress at all levels every year.

How to put more active fiscal policies into effect in 2025? How to divide the financial "cake" well and use it well? Open the "national account book", the "count" reflects the national economy and people's livelihood in the new era and new journey.

To understand the "national account book", you must first understand the full scope of the national fiscal "family" -

Open the 2025 government budget draft and budget report. In addition to seeing the income and expenditure arrangements we often call "general public budget", there are also detailed accounts of the income and expenditure of government fund budget, state-owned capital operation budget, and social insurance fund budget. The "four accounts" constitute a complete system of government budgets and are included in the scope of review and supervision by the National People's Congress.

The biggest of the "four books" is the "general public budget". The total scale of national general public budget expenditure in 2025 will be close to 30 trillion yuan.

One collection and one branch conveys macro-policy trends -

In 2025, my country's fiscal policy will shift from "positive" to "more positive", and will continue to work hard and be more powerful, and will timely adjust policy measures according to changes in the situation to launch a "combination punch" of policies.

An important signal is to increase the fiscal deficit ratio.

Ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, local government special bonds, special treasury bonds... In 2025, my country's fiscal policy "toolbox" continued to increase its efforts, becoming an important focus for macro-control.

Local government special bonds are one of the most direct and effective policy tools for the government to drive investment.

Financial transfer payments are an important policy tool to achieve equalization of basic public services among regions and promote the coordinated development of various economic and social undertakings.

In 2025, the central government will continue to increase transfer payments to local governments, strengthen local financial resources, and secure the bottom line of the grassroots "three guarantees".

In 2025, my country will also moderately increase investment within the central budget, allocating 735 billion yuan, an increase of 35 billion yuan from 2024, supporting the construction of key areas and major projects, and playing a key role in government investment.

In addition, 500 billion yuan of special treasury bonds were issued to support large state-owned commercial banks to supplement core tier 1 capital, enhance their stable operation capabilities and ability to serve the real economy.

More proactive fiscal policy is also reflected in vigorously optimizing the expenditure structure and strengthening precise investment—

The Central Economic Work Conference will list "vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and expand domestic demand in all aspects" as a key task in 2025, highlighting the importance of domestic demand to my country's economic development.

In 2024, the "two-fold" and "two-new" policies will be implemented at a faster pace, effectively releasing investment and consumption demand. Behind this, the support of fiscal funds, especially super-long-term special government bonds is inseparable.

In 2025, fiscal investment will continue to increase in focus on supporting the cultivation of new quality productivity and building a modern industrial system.

In 2025, the central government allocated 11.88 billion yuan for special funds for industrial base reconstruction and high-quality development of manufacturing, an increase of 14.5%, to promote high-quality development in key areas of manufacturing. A total of 200 billion yuan of super-long-term special treasury bonds will be allocated for equipment renewal, an increase of 50 billion yuan will be added, further expanding the scope and lowering the threshold.

At present, although the pressure on fiscal revenue and expenditure is not small, investment in people's livelihood has not decreased. Expenditures in key areas such as education, social security, employment, and health have continued to maintain a large increase, and the orientation of "benefiting people's livelihood" is clear.

The "big accounts" are powerful, while the "fine accounts" are warm.

In recent years, the National People's Congress' budget review and supervision have been deepened and expanded, deepened and implemented, and kept a close eye on every income and expenditure of the "national account book", and effectively used the "real money" on the edge and spent on important points to strengthen policy support and financial support for high-quality development.

Standing at a new historical starting point, the "clang" of a new round of fiscal and taxation system reform has been sounded.

In 2025, implement the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and implement all reform tasks step by step in accordance with the timetable and roadmap clearly defined in the implementation plan for deepening the reform of the fiscal and taxation system.

In the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", we will further deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system and implement more proactive fiscal policies. The "national account book" that concerns the welfare of more than 1.4 billion people will escort the sustained improvement of the economy and the steady and long-term development of high-quality development.

Text reporters: Han Jie, Qi Zhongxi, Shen Cheng, Wang Yuxiao, Han Jianuo

Picture design: Song Bo (contracted charter), Jiang Zihan, Liu Xi