China's fiscal reform: the issue of extra budgeting

To adjust the fiscal relationship between the central government and the local government, especially to increase the two ratios of (1) central fiscal revenue over GDP and (2) central fiscal revenue over government revenue, China conducted a 1994 fiscal reform effort, the result of which is, at best, mixed. One of the failures to boost the first ratio is the existence of large-scale extra budget funds (EBFs) and extra-extra budgetary funds (EEBFs). This paper explores the history, the problems and the causal relations associated with the EBFs under the broad background of China's fiscal reform and administrative reform. This paper then proposes a comprehensive package for the solution of problems related to the EBFs.