Land finance at all-time high

The total land transaction fees collected by local governments in 2013 soared to an all-time high of 3.9 trillion yuan ($629 billion), China Business News reported on Monday.

Transaction fees for the use of state-owned land, an important gauge of local governments' dependence on land finance, reached $665 billion, an increase of 45 percent. According to the report, 35 percent of all local revenue was generated by fees associated with the right to use state-owned land.

According to new figures from the Ministry of Finance, local governments' land transaction revenues reached $499 billion in 2011, dropped to $435 billion in 2012 and increased more than $193 billion to roughly $629 billion in 2013.

The ministry attributed the accelerating revenues to the price increase for land transactions, which was in lockstep with that local governments' increased dependence on fiscal income from the selling of land use rights.

Deng Shulian, professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, was quoted as saying that under the pressure of a tightened policy on local debts from the central government and slow financial growth rate, local governments usually focus on the government-sourced revenue, especially land transaction fees.

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