China's President Xi Jinping said on Frday that fiscal reforms were pressing but careful planning was needed, the official Xinhua news agency said, as top leaders discussed detailed reform plans.
The leadership has pledged to push fiscal reforms to shore up budget management and let the central government assume more spending obligations, reducing the need for local governments to borrow heavily or to sell land to raise revenues.
"We must fully understand the importance, urgency, complexity, difficulty in deepening fiscal and tax system reforms," Xinhua quoted Xi as telling a meeting of the central leading group for deepening reforms.
"We should actively and steadily push forward the reforms," Xi said, addling that careful preparations and consensus-building were vital for implementing detailed reform plans.
The group was set up earlier this year to steer comprehensive reforms to put the economy on a more sustainable footing, following a key party meeting in November last year.
Xi said fiscal reforms involved "difficult adjustments of interests", but gave no details.
Fiscal reform is gaining urgency as the government needs to tackle a root cause of local government debt and a lack of constraint on the finances of local governments will make interest rate reform less effective, analysts say.
But fiscal reform faces opposition from vested interests, especially as government revenues slows, they say.
So far, China's reforms have been incremental, focusing on cutting red tape, removing barriers for private investors into some protected sectors and liberalising financial markets.
Xi said reforms that were "conducive for stabilising growth, adjusting structures, preventing risks and improving people's livelihood" should be implemented first.
Xi also pledged to quicken reform of the rigid residence registration, or hukou, system, fully opening up cities for outsiders, opening up medium-sized cities in an orderly fashion but strictly controlling the size of the largest cities.
Beijing has pledged to gradually free up the hukou system to allow millions of migrants to settle in cities and enjoy basic welfare services there to help unleash their spending power.
The leadership has pledged to push fiscal reforms to shore up budget management and let the central government assume more spending obligations, reducing the need for local governments to borrow heavily or to sell land to raise revenues.
"We must fully understand the importance, urgency, complexity, difficulty in deepening fiscal and tax system reforms," Xinhua quoted Xi as telling a meeting of the central leading group for deepening reforms.
"We should actively and steadily push forward the reforms," Xi said, addling that careful preparations and consensus-building were vital for implementing detailed reform plans.
The group was set up earlier this year to steer comprehensive reforms to put the economy on a more sustainable footing, following a key party meeting in November last year.
Xi said fiscal reforms involved "difficult adjustments of interests", but gave no details.
Fiscal reform is gaining urgency as the government needs to tackle a root cause of local government debt and a lack of constraint on the finances of local governments will make interest rate reform less effective, analysts say.
But fiscal reform faces opposition from vested interests, especially as government revenues slows, they say.
So far, China's reforms have been incremental, focusing on cutting red tape, removing barriers for private investors into some protected sectors and liberalising financial markets.
Xi said reforms that were "conducive for stabilising growth, adjusting structures, preventing risks and improving people's livelihood" should be implemented first.
Xi also pledged to quicken reform of the rigid residence registration, or hukou, system, fully opening up cities for outsiders, opening up medium-sized cities in an orderly fashion but strictly controlling the size of the largest cities.
Beijing has pledged to gradually free up the hukou system to allow millions of migrants to settle in cities and enjoy basic welfare services there to help unleash their spending power.
