China's fiscal revenue up 18.4% in first 8 months

BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue logged a year-on-year increase of 18.4 percent in the first eight months of the year, official data showed Friday.

The country's fiscal revenue amounted to about 15.01 trillion yuan ($2.33 trillion) during the period, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Tax revenue came in at 12.96 trillion yuan in the Jan.-Aug. period, up 19.8 percent year on year.

Revenue from value-added tax, the largest source of fiscal revenue in the country, rose 19.1 percent year on year to 4.54 trillion yuan, while that from individual income tax jumped 23 percent from a year ago to 939.7 billion yuan.

In the first eight months, the central government and local governments collected nearly 7.05 trillion yuan and 7.96 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue, respectively, rising 18.9 percent and 17.9 percent year on year.

Friday's data also showed that China's fiscal spending went up 3.6 percent year on year to 15.54 trillion yuan for the first eight months.

Fiscal expenditure on education saw a yearly increase of 7.9 percent during the period, while spending on health and medical care rose 3.9 percent, the ministry said.