Beijing slashes revenue growth prospect

BEIJING - Beijing has marked down its public budget revenue growth prospect for 2019 to implement tax cuts and reduce enterprise operating costs, the city mayor Chen Jining said on Monday.

According to the annual government work report delivered at the opening meeting of the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, Beijing plans to slash its prospect for public budget revenue growth to 4 percent, down from about 6.5 percent in 2018.

Chen said Beijing will continue to cut taxes for small- and micro-enterprises as well as start-ups, in addition to about 18.8 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) of tax cuts in 2018.

In the meantime, government spending will be compressed by no less than 5 percent, Chen said.

The municipal finance bureau said public spending on education, research and development, social security and employment, and public health will be increased in 2019 to improve people's livelihoods.