Financial Governance:Equalizing Basic Public Services to Forge a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation
This study axiomizes that achieving equal provision of basic public services is a prereq-uisite for consolidating and forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.However,find-ings suggest that despite improvements in the over-all delivery of these services,there appear to be significant regional imbalances,notably character-ized by a growing"east-west divide"where serv-ices are more satisfactory in eastern regions and comparatively limited in the west.This disparity seems to be mainly due to the lack of grassroots budgetary standards for basic public services,sub-stantial vertical imbalances in finance,inadequate incentives in the transfer payment system,and in-sufficient budgetary guarantees and grassroots per-formance assessments for equalization in ethnic ar-eas.As such,this article considers fiscal govern-ance as a fundamental,pillar,and guarantee measure for realizing equalization of basic public services,and an effective means to mitigate region-al imbalances and promoting universal access.As a result,this paper proposes that a mecha-nism of fiscal governance should be specifically constructed as a tangible and effective transmission mechanism,encompassing a comprehensive fiscal continuum across eastern,central,and western re-gions of China:"coordinated tax revenue genera-tion → equal sharing of transfers → joint manage-ment of fiscal expenditures→performance apprais-al of budgetary assurances for basic public serv-ices".And following the path of"fiscal govern-ance→equalization of basic public services→ro-bust promotion of common prosperity → forging a strong sense of the Chinese national community",it should endeavor to implement standardized verti-cal and horizontal equalization of fiscal revenue and expenditure,and then gradually elevate the level of standardization to ensure adequate and eq-uitable basic public services across diverse ethnici-ties.On this basis,grass-roots budget management and systematic detailed assessment should be im-proved to ensure the effective supply of basic pub-lic services in ethnic areas and the emotional par-ticipation of people from all ethnic groups and re-gions.Additionally,value-added tax(VAT)ap-pears to be one of the most significant contributors to the financial power of both the central and local governments in China's tax system and even the o-verall fiscal revenue system.Establishing a well-designed and fair Value-Added Taxation sharing system therefore is deemed crucial for rationalizing fiscal relationships between governments at all lev-els and addressing fiscal vertical imbalances.It is,moreover,viewed as a vital institutional arrange-ment to enhance the taxation-related autonomy and power in ethnic regions.As for the incentives of transfer payments,this paper submits a collabora-tive governance approach of"emphasizing ethnic group participation in identifying public service needs → financial allocations and supply of public services by local governments → community over-sight over service delivery standards and the behav-ior of local governments".In conclusion,this pa-per recommends several policy initiatives to en-hance fiscal governance ensuring equality in basic public services in ethnic lands.These include deepening the reform of the fiscal system to rectify excessive fiscal imbalances,refining transfer pay-ment mechanisms,and improving the joint man-agement of transfers and fiscal expenditures.
a strong sense of community for the Chinese nationcommon prosperityequal ac-cess to basic public servicesfiscal governance
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