Since the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, especially in the late 1990s, the government budget system has undergone a series of major reforms. With the establishment of the basic target framework of public finance, government budget reform has gradually become the focus of China's financial system reform. Under this macro background, it is of great practical significance for the reform and improvement of China's financial system, especially the public budget system, to learn from the institutional change theory of new institutional economics, clarify the historical track of China's government budget system changes in the past 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and analyze and summarize its stage characteristics and experiences and lessons.

First, the historical background of the evolution of government budget system since the founding of New China.

The reform of China government's budget system is adapted to the macro background of social and economic system transformation and financial system reform. According to the transformation of China's social and economic development and the characteristics of the development and changes of the government budget system itself, the changes of the government budget system in New China in the past 60 years can be divided into three stages.

(1) The emergence and slow development stage of the government budget system in the planned economy period (1949- 1978).

The government budget of New China was established with the birth of People's Republic of China (PRC). After the founding of New China, according to the relevant provisions in the Program of China People's Political Consultative Conference, the central government began to prepare the national fiscal revenue and expenditure budget of 1950. 1949 65438+On February 2nd, the fourth meeting of the Central People's Government adopted 1950 financial revenue and expenditure budget preparation report, which is the first budget estimate of new China and marks the birth of the new China government budget system. 1951August, on the basis of unifying the national financial and economic work, the State Council issued the Provisional Regulations on Budget and Final Accounts, which is the earliest separate regulation on the national budget in China, and stipulates the organizational system of the national budget, the budget authority of people's governments at all levels, the preparation and examination procedures of budgets at all levels, and the preparation and examination procedures of final accounts. 1954 On September 20th, the first constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC), which was adopted at the first session of the First National People's Congress, stipulated that the budgets of governments at all levels should be approved by the people's congresses at the same level, making the government budgets accountable to the legislature. With the promulgation and implementation of the above-mentioned budget laws and regulations, China's government budget system has been initially established, which has played a great role in raising construction funds and promoting socialist transformation.

After the establishment of the government budget system in the early days of the founding of New China, it experienced a slow development period of more than 20 years, which was the existence and development period of the traditional planned economy in China and the traditional planned finance and national budget in China. Under this planned finance, the budget is only a vassal of the plan, and its position and role are not obvious. The budget follows the plan, is simple and extensive, and has no legitimacy, authority and seriousness. Before 1978, although budget activities did exist as a part of government management activities, due to the abnormal political life of the country, it was difficult to carry out budget activities normally, resulting in deficits for many years (see figure 1). At this stage, there have been several serious setbacks and mistakes in the government budget system. For example, in the Great Leap Forward Movement of 1958, the comprehensive fiscal balance was regarded as "right-leaning conservatism" and advocated "positive balance" over budget, which led to serious budget deficits in 1958, 1959 and 1960, with the total deficits reaching 2.074 billion yuan and 20.70 billion yuan respectively. Affected by three years of natural disasters and "Great Leap Forward" activities, 196 1 year and 1962 did not have a formal national budget; During the period of 1966- 1977, due to the influence of the "cultural revolution", the activities of the people's congresses were forced to be interrupted. During this period, there was no official national budget and final accounts, and the fiscal deficit was serious.

The characteristics of government budget in this period are: adopting a single budget in budget form, implementing the principle of comprehensive balance of national economy in principle, adopting the cardinal number method for a long time, combining bottom-up and top-down budgeting procedures, and summarizing step by step. Budget management is generally extensive, budget preparation is opaque, and there are problems such as non-programming and non-standardization. However, the methods of budget management are different for different departments, units and different types of expenditures. Of course, constrained by the economic system, it is almost impossible for democratic budget activities to be used as a tool to manage the government during this period. The whole budget process is dominated by administrative power, and the budget content is mainly the calculation of profit and tax income of state-owned enterprises and the planning and arrangement of investment of state-owned enterprises. From the vertical relationship between governments, the central government compiles the national budget in a unified way, and local governments are responsible for implementing the unified budget plan. The budget formulated by the government at the same level is only the detailed rules for the implementation of the national unified budget.

(2) The initial stage of government budget system reform in the period of system transition (1979- 1998).

Marked by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, China began a comprehensive economic system reform, which is a fundamental change aimed at establishing a socialist market economy. The transformation of this economic system also determines that China's financial model has undergone a transformation from a planned financial model to a market-oriented financial model. Accordingly, the reform of the government budget system has also begun a difficult initial stage.

Starting from 1979, the administrative department of the government officially resumed budget preparation, and fulfilled the legal procedures implemented after the national budget report was submitted to the National People's Congress for examination and approval, thus restoring the true colors of the budget in terms of content and procedures. Since 1980, with the financial system reform of "eating by kitchen", local governments have become more and more active in their own budgets. At this time, the central government only plays the role of summarizing local budgets as national budgets, and has no power and ability to decide and modify local government budget indicators. In this way, the original practice of central unified preparation of the national budget and local implementation was finally abandoned, and the budgetary principle of the first-level regime was realized. This shows that the direction of budget system reform is correct and meets the basic requirements of modern budget system.

From 65438 to the beginning of 0992, Deng Xiaoping's southern tour speech set off a new wave of reform throughout the country. In the same year, in June+10, 5438, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the reform target mode of establishing a socialist market economic system, which marked that China's reform and opening up entered a new era. In order to establish a government public finance system adapted to the market economy and strengthen budget management, China began to comprehensively reform the traditional government budget system. First, the formulation and implementation of national budget management regulations. The Regulations on State Budget Management issued by 199 1 stipulates that China's national budget adopts a double-entry budget, which is divided into recurrent budget and constructive budget. Since 1992, the central budget has been compiled in the form of double budget. The implementation of this regulation has played a positive legal role in strengthening budget management and strengthening budget functions. Second, the promulgation and implementation of the budget law. The Budget Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into effect on 1995, clearly stipulates the basic principles of budget management, budget management levels, budget composition system, budget year, budget management authority and budget revenue and expenditure scope, as well as budget preparation, budget approval, budget adjustment, final accounts and supervision, as well as specific manifestations of budget violations and punishment measures for illegal units. This makes China's budget system step into the legal track. Third, implement a new budget accounting system. In order to meet the needs of the market economy, the Ministry of Finance issued a new budget accounting system, including the general budget accounting system, the administrative unit accounting system, the public institution accounting system and the public institution accounting standards (for Trial Implementation) 65438 to 0998, which were uniformly implemented throughout the country. Fourth, improve the management of extra-budgetary funds. 1In July, 1996, the State Council issued the Decision on Strengthening the Management of Extra-budgetary Funds, which strictly defined extra-budgetary funds as financial funds, required all government departments and institutions to submit the revenue and expenditure plans of extra-budgetary funds to the financial department, and put forward the basic management mode of "two lines of revenue and expenditure". In line with this, the Ministry of Finance has successively formulated the Implementation Measures for the Management of Extra-budgetary Funds and the Interim Provisions on the Management of Special Financial Accounts of Central Extra-budgetary Funds, making the standardized management of extra-budgetary funds operational. In addition, at this stage, some local governments began to implement government budget reform and innovation. For example, Anhui Province, Henan Province, Hubei Province, Yunnan Province, Shenzhen City and other provinces and cities have broken through the traditional framework of adopting the "base method" for budgeting, implemented the zero-base budget reform, and achieved exploratory results.

Compared with the government budget system in the planned economy period, the reform of the government budget system in this stage was carried out under the background of the rapid development of market factors after the reform and opening up, with great measures and efforts, and also achieved positive results and experience. However, the reform generally lags behind other aspects of the economic system reform, and has not fundamentally touched the planned economy essence of the government budget system, and the reform is still in the primary stage. There are still a series of problems in the government budget system, such as softening budget constraints, low budget transparency and low efficiency in the use of budget funds.

(3) The deepening stage of government budget system reform during the period of public finance construction (1999 to present).

From 65438 to 0998, China government formally put forward the basic framework of establishing public finance, which marked a new stage of deepening the reform of financial system. A new round of government budget system reform has also started. 1In September, 1999, the Ministry of Finance pointed out in the Opinions on Improving the Preparation of the Central Budget in 2000 that in 2000, some central departments will be selected as pilot units to prepare departmental budgets, and the contents of the draft budget submitted to the National People's Congress will be refined. This shows that the budget system reform has gradually become the focus of the financial system reform, and its goal is to reconstruct the budget preparation and implementation process according to the requirements of public finance.

1. Implement departmental budget reform. The reform of departmental budget solves the problem of the allocation of financial funds, which can comprehensively reflect the departmental budget and all the financial funds of the subordinate units of the department and refine the budget preparation. In the compilation method, advanced methods such as zero-based budget and rolling budget are adopted. Based on the experience of departmental budget in Hebei province, the central government began to try out departmental budget at the central level in 2000. Anhui, Zhejiang, Hainan and other provinces and individual regions have also carried out corresponding reforms and explorations before and after the budget reform of the central departments. Subsequently, departmental budget reform was widely spread at the national central level and local governments. This reform will gradually concentrate the budget distribution power scattered to various departments to the financial department, thus enhancing the administrative control and budget transparency within the government.

2. Implement the financial system reform of centralized treasury receipt and payment. On the basis of the initial achievements of departmental budget reform, the central government officially launched the reform of the national treasury management system in 20001year, and gradually pushed it across the country. By 2005, the central treasury single account system was fully promoted in all government departments, and the reform of local treasury management system was also actively promoted. The purpose of centralized treasury payment reform is to ensure strict and standardized budget implementation and improve the efficiency of the use of financial funds after the departmental budget is determined. Government departments replace the decentralized financial management system by establishing a centralized treasury management system with a single account as the core, and the financial department controls the expenditure decisions and activities of various departments from the outside to ensure the safe and efficient operation of financial funds.

3. Implement the government procurement system. The Government Procurement Law, enacted in 2002, established a centralized and transparent government procurement system based on the centralized treasury management system to solve the problem of the use of financial funds. Prior to this, the procurement of all expenditure units was decentralized, and the disadvantages were very obvious. After the establishment of the centralized government procurement model, a legal system with the Government Procurement Law as the core was established, the scale of government procurement was expanded, and the government procurement budget system of central units was established, which effectively ensured the fairness, openness and efficiency of the use of financial funds.

4. Reform the classification of government revenue and expenditure. The original classification method of government budget revenue and expenditure subjects in China was determined with reference to the Soviet model in the planned economy period. Although some adjustments were made later, its basic classification method has always been quite different from that of market economy countries. Starting from 1999, the Ministry of Finance began to study how to build a government revenue and expenditure classification system that meets the requirements of public finance management. In 2004, the Ministry of Finance completed the preliminary design of the new reform scheme of government revenue and expenditure classification. In March, 2005, the pilot project was launched in the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources and other central ministries and commissions, and in Tianjin, Hebei, Hainan, Hunan, Hubei and other provinces. It was officially implemented nationwide from June 65438 to1October 65438, 2007.

5. Deepen the management reform of "two lines of revenue and expenditure". Since the end of 1990s, China has intensified the management reform of "two lines of revenue and expenditure". 1999 promulgated the "Several Provisions on Separate Management of Revenue and Expenditure for Administrative Fees and Confiscated Income", which made more detailed provisions on the methods of separate management of revenue and expenditure. 200 1 the State Council forwarded the Opinions of the Ministry of Finance on Deepening the Reform of the Two Lines of Revenue and Expenditure and Further Strengthening Financial Management, requiring all regions and departments to deepen the reform of the two lines of revenue and expenditure. In 2002, 34 central departments carried out the management reform of deepening the "two lines of revenue and expenditure". At the same time, local governments are also actively promoting this reform. In 2004, significant progress was made in the management scope of separating revenue from expenditure, the rectification of charging items, and the inclusion of government non-tax revenue in the management scope.

6. "Golden Finance Project" construction. The Ministry of Finance began to establish the "Government Financial Management Information System" (GFMIS for short) in the second half of 1999, and started the pilot project in 200 1. At the beginning of 2002, the State Council named "Government Financial Management Information System" as "Golden Finance Project", and listed it as one of the 12 key national e-government projects. "Golden Finance Project" is a comprehensive government financial management information system that uses advanced information network technology to support core businesses such as budget management, centralized treasury receipt and payment, and financial and economic prosperity prediction. It is the inevitable requirement of informationization of financial work and modernization of financial management in China.

The practice of the above-mentioned budget system reform shows that the budget reform measures implemented in China since 1999 complement each other, standardize the budget management links such as the definition of budget funds, budget preparation and budget execution, and initially establish a government budget system framework suitable for public finance, which shows good results in improving budget management level and strengthening budget constraints.

Second, the constraints of the reform of the government budget system under the framework of public finance

Since 1998, the depth and breadth of government budget system reform have been increasing, and the reform has achieved certain results, showing good results in improving budget management level and strengthening budget constraints. However, it should be noted that China's budget reform is a gradual reform along the path from easy to difficult. This gradual institutional change is often easily influenced by traditional path dependence, which makes the reform of government budget system in China face a series of constraints, which is still far from the normative requirements of public finance system.

First, the reform of the budget system involves the adjustment of interest relations, which is restricted by the lagging reform of the administrative system. In recent years, the government budget reform mainly focuses on solving the problems of budget rules and procedures, that is, mainly focusing on the reform of budget technology. However, from the perspective of progressive budgeting theory, the government budget is not only a technical issue, but also a purely economic issue. It also involves the adjustment of interests among budget participants, including the legislature, budget management departments, budget fund use departments, interest groups and the public, and the latter often has a greater impact on the budget process and results. The evolution of budget system in Britain, America and other countries is a process of political power balance adjustment between legislative bodies and administrative bodies. The reform of budget system is based on a certain political system, and the coordination between finance and other departments and the coordination of departmental distribution rights is carried out through legislation. However, China's budget reform is mainly carried out in the administrative department, with the administrative department as the main body, especially the financial department as the main body, which means that under the current administrative management framework, the arrangement and implementation of budget reform are mainly completed by the financial department. However, under the framework of China's current administrative system, the financial department does not have such a position to coordinate the interests of the department. Therefore, the reform of the budget system has been more hindered.

Second, the level of legalization of government budget is not high, and the budget supervision mechanism is weakened. The rule of law is an important feature of public finance, and the financial rule of law is directly manifested through the government budget. China has implemented the Budget Law of the People's Republic of China since June 1995+0. Although the budget law has made comprehensive and accurate provisions on the general principles, management authority, budget revenue and expenditure scope, budget preparation, budget review and approval, budget adjustment, final accounts, supervision and legal responsibilities of the state budget, its implementation is not ideal. The implementation of China's budget bill is only a rough principle framework, lacking operational implementation rules, which leads to the arbitrary execution behavior of budget execution organs and personnel, and the consciousness and atmosphere of budget preparation, execution and supervision in strict accordance with the budget law is far from being formed. Due to the low level of rule of law, the budget supervision mechanism is weakened. People's congresses at all levels only conduct a general and general review of the budget, "only discuss it", and approve the budget as a mere formality; Local governments only rely on the will of leaders or the government's decision to increase the budget or change the use of funds in budget implementation, and NPC's supervision over budget adjustment is ineffective; The use of budget surplus income is not supervised by NPC. The existence of these phenomena shows that the long-standing problem of "soft budget constraint" in China has not been effectively solved.

Third, the government budget is not open enough and the transparency is low. As a government revenue and expenditure plan and a national legislative document, government budget is an important window to reflect government activities, and it is also the main basis for the public to understand government activities, supervise the government's correct use of public funds and judge the effectiveness of government activities. This requires that the whole process of government budget, including budget preparation, implementation, results and related rules, must be open and transparent. All activities in the government budget should be known, participated and supervised by the public. But today, some localities and departments still habitually regard the government budget as top secret, and the transparency of the government budget is far from enough. The information feedback during the operation of budget funds is not comprehensive and the transparency is not high, so it is difficult to provide reliable basis for budget preparation, budget execution analysis and macro-control, and it is also difficult for the legislature and the public to effectively supervise the budget. It should be pointed out that improving the transparency of the government budget is a difficult process, which requires firm political will from the top of the government.

Fourth, the budget is unscientific and inefficient. Judging from the completeness of the budget, the government budget should cover the whole process of government economic activities and reflect all the government's revenue and expenditure plans. But for a long time, China has divided financial funds into budgetary funds and extra-budgetary funds in financial distribution. This dual-track operation not only violates the principle of budget integrity, but also weakens the macro-control ability of finance. Due to the lack of effective supervision and restriction on extra-budgetary funds, extra-budgetary funds have evolved into small coffers for obtaining departmental interests and even personal interests, and become a huge black hole for encroaching on public interests; Judging from the method of budgeting, the current government budget is basically based on the original radix method. The amount of budgetary funds obtained by each department does not depend on the development of the cause, but on the original base. The size of the base is very important to the amount of budget funds, and it is difficult to break through the original expenditure base of budget units. From the content, the degree of budget refinement is not high. Although the budget unit has compiled the departmental budget, the mobile indicators reserved in the budget are too large, and some budgetary expenditures are not detailed to specific units, projects and uses, especially some special subsidies; Judging from the budget revenue and expenditure subjects, the classification standards of subjects are not uniform. At present, the practice of cross-classification according to economic nature, expenditure function and department is not strict enough, which leads to the loose budget revenue and expenditure subject system, which is not convenient for statistical analysis and is not connected with the internationally accepted classification method. Due to the lack of scientific budgeting process, budget management is extensive and inefficient.

Third, the path choice of government budget system reform.

Reforming the government budget system according to the standard requirements of public finance is the core content of China's current financial system reform. Because this reform involves the change and adjustment of the interest pattern of various government departments, it is a complex and arduous work, not only involving a series of complex budget technical problems, but also being restricted by the lag of administrative management and even political system reform, so it cannot be achieved overnight, and its reform process can only be a gradual and gradual process. The author believes that to further deepen the reform of public budget, we must break through the path dependence of traditional budget system and pay attention to institutional innovation.

1. Strengthen the legal effect of government budget. First of all, we should actively promote the revision and improvement of government budget legislation, base ourselves on China's basic national conditions, learn from international successful experience, further enhance the standardization and operability of budget law, and provide a solid legal framework for budget reform. Secondly, on the basis of further refining the budget preparation, we set out to formulate China's annual budget law to manage annual revenue and expenditure according to law. Third, while constantly strengthening budget legislation, we should also strengthen law enforcement to ensure that budget activities strictly follow the established government budget procedures.

2. Reform the budget method and establish a scientific budget system. First, it is necessary to improve and perfect the system of budget subjects and the determination method of revenue and expenditure standards, and further divide budget subjects scientifically and carefully, so that the setting of budget subjects can fully and accurately reflect the financial functions and all the revenue and expenditure activities of the government. The second is to implement zero-based budget reasonably according to the responsibilities, development goals and personnel of each department. The third is to improve the way of budgeting. In accordance with the requirements of the budget law, a double-entry budget is compiled and a multi-entry budget is constructed, which is juxtaposed with the government public budget, the state-owned assets operation budget and the social security budget, so as to more clearly reflect the sources and use of different budget funds and enhance budget transparency. Fourth, reform the budget preparation and auditing procedures, strictly implement the statutory editing and auditing procedures, and the preparation must go through the budget policy formulation of the budget preparation department, the demonstration and evaluation of the budget plan and the revision of the special Committee of the National People's Congress.

3. Harden budget constraints and give full play to the role of the NPC in budget reform. To meet the overall requirements of China's political system reform, we should adjust the existing political structure, especially increase the role of the National People's Congress, and adjust the current government governance model with strengthening the role of the National People's Congress as the core. That is to say, in the public budget reform, we should give full play to the role of the National People's Congress as the highest authority, and make it change from a "rubber stamp" status to a subject with the right to decide on the government budget, including the veto, and take this as an opportunity to take the public budget reform as the main driving force to promote the reform of the government administrative system and improve the government governance model.

4. Improve the market economic system and lay the institutional foundation for the construction of the budget system and public finance system. Budget system is an important part of the whole social and economic system, so the establishment of public budget system must constantly improve the socialist market economic system. First, further encourage the development of multi-ownership economy and promote fair competition among different ownership economies; Second, improve the unified, open and competitive modern market, including property rights, land, commodities, labor and capital, and give full play to the role of the market in resource allocation; Third, deepen the reform of distribution system, further deepen the reform of social security system, and improve and strengthen macro-control; The fourth is to deepen the reform of specific systems such as fiscal system, tax system, state-owned assets management system, investment and financing system and financial system. In short, only by continuing to deepen the reform of the market economy system can we lay the institutional foundation for the establishment of the public finance system and the reconstruction of the budget system, and can we establish a public budget system that meets the requirements of the public finance system.