Budgetary Supervision in China

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• About the Author
• Introduction

The British bourgeois aristocracy in 1215 forced the king to sign the Magna Carta, putting it as a rule that the King could collect tax unless he was allowed by the nobility. With continuous struggles, the bourgeoisie made more victory in the provisions that the King was not free to collect and use tax. Furthermore, the revenues of tax and the expenditures of budget had to be approved by the Parliament with an annual allocation of revenues and expenditures which should be approved and supervised by the Parliament. As the basis and core of the modern state of financial systems, the budgetary system is naturally associated with basic values of democracy, the laws, and rights. Except life, property delivery is the greatest sacrifice the citizens make to the society and government representatives achieve publicity of the public finance on behalf of the civil society and meet public benefits…

The following sections are included:

• Section 1. Changes of the Budgetary Supervision System of Provincial People's Congress
  • The Background of Changes of the System
  • Formation of the Basic Legal Framework
  • Basis of Systematic Construction
• Section 2. Origins of the Budgetary Supervision System of Provincial People's Congress
  • The Constitution and Laws
  • Administrative Laws and Regulations
  • Local Laws and Regulations
  • Departmental Rules and Regulations
• Section 3. Main Contents and Procedures of Budgetary Supervision of Provincial People's Congress
  • Supervision in the Process of Coordination of Making Budget
  • Supervision in Daily Implementation of Budget
  • Supervision over Budget Adjustment

The power of budgetary supervision of the provincial People's Congress is authorized by the Constitution. However, as the Constitution incorporates few conceptual provisions, and its specific laws have limited principle regulations; it makes the power of budgetary supervision of the provincial People's Congress merely procedural and not substantive. Lack of substantial effect of budgetary supervision reflects the constitutional problems. The constitutional principle of budget require members of the society to participate and supervise public financial activities. Yet the reform of budgetary system in China overemphasizes government control of the budget and ignores the democratic supervision of the budget, thus, forcing the grass-root governments to gradually solve the problems in the legal system. The current budgetary supervision system in China is not ideal. For example, at the provincial level, the representatives of the People's Congress generally feel more confused about its supervision powers, even though the provinces have made local laws and regulations such as regulations on provincial budgetary supervision in accordance with the spirit of the national budget law.

The following sections are included:

• Section 1. The Power of Supervision in Budgetary Decision-Making
  • Balance between the Powers of Budgetary Decision-Making
  • Standardization of the Power of Budgetary Decision-Making
  • Coordination between the People's Congress, the Party Committee, and the Government
• Section 2. Power of Supervision in the Process of Making Budget
  • Supervision over Amendment to the Draft Budget
  • Strengthening the Power of Amending the Draft Budget in the Stage of Preliminary Examination
• Section 3. Sound Restrictions on the Power of Budgetary Supervision of the People's Congress
  • To Avoid a Trend of Opportunism of the Power of Budgetary Supervision of the People's Congress
  • Rational Allocation of the Power of Budgetary Supervision of the People's Congress in the Constitutional Framework

The following sections are included:

• Section 1. Improvement of the Budget Information Disclosure System
  • Legal Guarantee of Budget Information Disclosure
  • The Requirements of Budget Information Disclosure
  • Design in System of Budget Information Disclosure
• Section 2. Ensuring Citizens' Right to Know on Budget Information
  • Legalization of Citizens' Right to Know on Budget Information
  • Approaches of Protecting Citizens' Right to Know on Budget Information

Supervision of the People's Congress over the government budget is involved in the whole budgetary process. This includes approval of the draft budget, supervision over the process of budgetary implementation, approval of budgetary adjustment, and audit of the budgetary implementation situation. It also involves collection and feedback of the public opinions. The most serious problem of budgetary supervision of the provincial People's Congress in China is its failure in substantive results, as the laws and regulations passed by both the national and the provincial People's Congress only define the contents of budgetary supervision rather than providing practical supervision measures. This makes it difficult for the People's Congress to exercise substantive supervision over the fiscal revenues and expenditures of the government in accordance with corresponding legal provisions. Therefore, it needs to strengthen legal construction of the People's Congress in decisionmaking of budgetary compilation and implementation, regulating the budgetary powers of the government, and solving the problem in practice that budgetary supervision power of the People's Congress is weak or even empty.

The following sections are included:

• Conclusion
• Bibliography