BEIJING, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- China's fiscal surplus in the first half of this year, spurred by rising revenues, totaled nearly $174 billion, the finance ministry said.
First half fiscal revenues, mostly from higher corporate income tax and import turnover tax, soared 33.27 percent to $507 billion over the same period last year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Expenditures during the period were up 59.52 percent to $332.2 billion.
"Rising imports also drove up corporate income tax," said one economist.
While some experts proposed a tax cut in view of the surplus, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences analyst Yang Zhiyong said second half fiscal expenditure was expected to increase, the report said.
Yang said much of the expenditure would go to finance reconstruction in the wake of the May 12 earthquake devastation.
