Shenzhen’s general public budget revenue in 2024 saw its first decrease in 24 years, with a 4.8% drop mainly due to a decrease in tax revenue. At least 10 cities nationwide, including Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Nanjing, experienced declines in tax revenue in 2024, relying on non-tax revenue to boost overall income.
On February 25, the Shenzhen Municipal Finance Bureau proposed the People’s Congress to review the report on the implementation of the 2024 budget and the draft budget for 2025, which revealed that Shenzhen’s general public budget revenue in 2024 was 391.42 billion yuan, a 4.8% year-on-year decrease. The growth rate fell short of expectations by 5.8 percentage points, drawing widespread attention.
According to a report by “Jiemian News,” statistics show that Shenzhen’s general public budget revenue had been steadily increasing over the years, except for a 5% drop in 1990, based on the budget reports and data from the municipal finance bureau from 1979 to 2023.
The report indicated that in 2024, tax revenue accounted for 83.4% of Shenzhen’s general public budget revenue, amounting to 326.51 billion yuan, down by 202.4 billion compared to the previous year.
Specifically, in Shenzhen’s 2024 tax revenue, value-added tax, corporate income tax, and personal income tax accounted for 39.4%, 21.6%, and 15.7%, respectively, totaling 76.7%.
It is evident that the main reason for the decline in Shenzhen’s fiscal revenue in 2024 was the pressure on tax revenue.
According to recent reports by the new media “Sohu City,” from January to November 2024, fixed asset investment in Shenzhen increased by 2.1% year-on-year, while real estate development project investment dropped by 12.5%. State-owned industrial enterprises reported a loss of 30.1%, totaling 48.8 billion yuan, an 18.4% increase compared to the previous year.
Nationwide, at least 10 cities, including Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Nanjing, saw declines in tax revenue in 2024, relying on growth in non-tax revenue to boost total income.
In fact, this was a common occurrence nationwide in 2024. According to data from the Ministry of Finance of the Communist Party of China, the national general public budget revenue in 2024 was 21.97 trillion yuan, a 1.3% year-on-year increase. Tax revenue amounted to 17.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 79.1% of the general public budget revenue, a 3.4% decrease from the previous year.
In 2024, Wuhan’s general public budget revenue was 166.73 billion yuan, a 4.1% increase. Tax revenue was 122.36 billion yuan, down by 5.8%, while non-tax revenue surged by 46.5% to 44.37 billion yuan.
Tianjin and Chongqing saw significant increases in confiscation and utilization of state-owned resources. In 2024, Tianjin’s confiscation revenue amounted to 7.13 billion yuan, a 49% rise, while revenue from the utilization of state-owned resources reached 23.29 billion, a 26% increase. Chongqing reported confiscation revenue of 7.24 billion yuan, up by 26%, and revenue from the utilization of state-owned resources stood at 76.14 billion yuan, a 23% increase.
Economic scholar David Huang, who is based in the United States, told “Epoch Times” that due to the insufficient profitability of land finance and the poor operating capacity of local governments, fines are the quickest method and can be liquidated rapidly.
Chinese-American economist Li Hengqing also said to “Epoch Times” that in every era, as financial difficulties intensify towards the end, conventional taxation becomes insufficient, leading to resorting to arbitrary fines.