Review and supervision by Chinese legislatures will be extended to expenditure budget and relevant policies, according to a guideline issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. [Special coverage]
"The extension is aimed at strengthening and improving the legislatures' review and supervision on budget in accordance with the law and an important measure to establish and perfect the budget review and supervision system with Chinese characteristics," it said.
"By strengthening the people's congresses' supervision over expenditure budget and policies, the guiding and constraining effects of policies on relevant budgets will be enhanced," the guideline said, adding that relevant measures would also help ensure that the CPC Central Committee's major principles, policies and decisions could be better implemented with the budgetary arrangements and policies.
It said that in the past, the focus on government budget review and management and legislatures' review and supervision was the size of deficit and balance of budgeted revenue and expenditure, which lacked focus on expenditure budget, policies, and the efficiency of fiscal fund and policies.