黃瓜小菜被罰款 700 美元，可見中國地方債務危機

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China’s Local Debt Woes Seen in $700 Fine for Cucumber Dish

Bloomberg News

Mon, June 12, 2023 at 12:17 a.m. PDT

(Bloomberg) -- China’s indebted local governments are increasingly imposing controversial fines on residents in a bid to generate revenue, stoking anger among social-media users.

A Shanghai restaurateur was fined 5,000 yuan ($702) this month for serving shredded cucumber without a licence, prompting outrage on China’s Twitter-like Weibo. In a post viewed 9.5 million times, one user wrote: “If they wanna fine you, even adding vinegar could be wrong.”

Truckers in central Henan province last month made headlines when they questioned the accuracy of government vehicle weighing machines, after being repeatedly fined for exceeding limits: one driver had received tickets totaling $38,000 in the past two years.

In Guangxi, one of China’s most indebted provinces, a state-backed company sparked anger in May for hiking parking fees, leading some commuters to rack up thousands of yuan in charges. After Weibo users questioned their legitimacy, the Nanning city mayor bowed and apologized at a press conference.

These high-profile scandals represent a broader trend of local governments using fines to bolster their coffers. A State Council inspection last year found that in the wake of the pandemic and other economic difficulties, local government penalties had become stricter and more severe, according to an article in state media.

Guangxi alone made 13 billion yuan from fines last year, according to an analysis of government data by Caijing Industry Research Center — equivalent to about 14% of its tax income, rising from 9% in 2021.

“It is a sign of desperation,” said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, who specializes in China’s banking policies. “Arbitrary fines and predatory behavior will drive businesses away, especially small and medium businesses without the political protection of large state-owned enterprises,” he added.

China’s local governments have suffered the dual blows of the pandemic and a property crackdown from Beijing in recent years, leaving them with too little income to spend on salaries and building roads, while at the same time paying their debt bills. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates China’s total government debt is about $23 trillion, a figure that includes the hidden borrowing of thousands of financing companies set up by provinces and cities.

The central government reiterated this month that provinces have to fix hidden debt problems on their own, leaving local officials to get more creative to raise revenue for their day-to-day spending. Last year, a grocer in Shaanxi province was fined 66,000 yuan for selling 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of substandard celery, while in August, officials in Guangdong were found to have falsified evidence to fine trucks for suspected illegal dumping.

“Fees and fines are going to become more visible with economic growth slowing, as these are things local bureaucrats have control over on a day-to-day basis,” said Liqian Ren, director of Modern Alpha at WisdomTree Asset Management, adding that such measures are just a band aid that only help at the margins.

As such cases spark outrage on social media, government scrutiny of levies has ramped up. Following the Guangxi street-parking uproar last month, city authorities in Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, and Shandong also started cracking down on expensive parking fees. In February, then-Premier Li Keqiang called on provinces to “resolutely put an end to arbitrary fees” and fines at a cabinet meeting.

The levies are unlikely to make a meaningful difference to the shortfall in local finances. Still, excessive fines will probably remain a feature as provinces are left to shoulder their own problems, said Zerlina Zeng, senior credit analyst at CreditSights Singapore LLC.

“As fines and other regulatory burdens kill off the SMEs, local governments would further lose tax income, become even more reliant on fines, and dependent on transfers from central and other upper-tier governments,” Zeng said.

She added: “This could be detrimental to the local business environment and result in a vicious cycle in weak regions.”

--With assistance from Fran Wang, Yujing Liu, Yihui Xie and Colum Murphy.

(Updates with expert comment in the tenth paragraph.)

Translation

（彭博社） - 中國負債累累的地方政府越來越多地對居民處以有爭議的罰款，以創做收入，這引發了社交媒體用戶的憤怒。

 上海一家餐館本月因無牌販供應黃瓜切段而被罰款 5,000 元（702 美元），這事在中國類似推特的微博上引發了公憤。 在一篇被瀏覽了 950 萬次的帖子中，一位用戶寫道： “如果他們想罰款你，即使加醋也可能是規犯的。”

在上個月，河南省中部的卡車司機因質疑政府車輛重量計算機的準確性而成為頭條新聞，此前他們因超限多次被罰款：一名司機在過去兩年中收到了總計 38,000 美元的罰單。

在中國負債最重的省份之一廣西，一家國有企業5月份因提高停車費而引發公憤，因向一些通勤者收取了數千元的費用。 在微博用戶質疑其合法性後，南寧市市長在新聞發布會上鞠躬道歉。

這些備受矚目的醜聞代表了地方政府利用罰款來撐實財政的更廣泛趨勢。 據官方媒體的一篇文章稱，去年國務院的一次檢查發現，在疫情和其他經濟困難之後，地方政府的處罰變得越來越嚴厲。

根據《財經》產業研究中心對政府數據的分析，去年僅廣西就從罰款中賺取了 130 億元人民幣，相當於其稅收收入的 14% 左右，從2021年的 9%升上來的。

專門研究中國銀行政策的加州大學聖地亞哥分校副教授Victor Shih表示:“這是絕望的跡象”。 他補充說： “任意罰款和掠奪性行為將趕走企業，特別是中小企業, 它們沒有像大型國有企業般的政治保護。”

近年來，中國地方政府遭受了疫情和北京房地產整治的雙重打擊，導致他們的收入太少，無法支付工資和修建道路，同時還要償還債務。 高盛集團估計，中國政府債務總額約為23萬億美元，其中包括各省市設立的數千家金融公司的隱性借款。

中央政府本月重申，各省必須自行解決隱性債務問題，這讓地方官員能夠更有創意地增加日常支出的收入。 去年，陝西省一家雜貨商因銷售2.5公斤（5.5磅）不合格芹菜而被罰款66,000元人民幣，而8月，廣東官員被發現偽造證據，對涉嫌非法傾倒的卡車進行罰款。

WisdomTree資產管理公司Modern Alpha總監Liqian Ren表示: “隨著經濟增長放緩，收費和罰款將變得更加明顯，因為這些是地方官僚有日常可控制的事情” ，並補充說， 措施只是權宜之計，只能起到邊際作用。

由於此類案件在社交媒體上引發公憤，政府加大了對徵稅的審查力度。 繼上個月廣西路邊停車風波之後，江蘇、內蒙古、浙江和山東等城市當局也開始整頓昂貴的停車費。 今年二月，時任總理李克強在內閣會議上呼籲各省 “堅決杜絕亂收費” 和罰款。

CreditSights Singapore LLC 的高級信貸分析師 Zerlina Zeng 表示, 這些稅收不太可能對地方財政缺口產生重大影響，不過，因為各省要自己承擔自己的問題,過份的罰款可能仍將是一個特色。

Zeng 說: “隨著罰款和其他監管負擔扼殺中小企業，地方政府將進一步失去稅收收入，變得更加依賴罰款，並依賴中央和其他上層政府的轉移支付” 。

她補充道： “這可能不利於當地商業環境，並導致在弱勢地區形成惡性循環。”

          So, China’s indebted local governments are increasingly imposing controversial fines on residents in a bid to generate revenue. Obviously, these excessive fines and other regulatory burdens will discourage local small enterprises, the result is that local governments would lose tax income, and rely more on financial helps from the central government.