Title: Spending Must Be Accountable: Around 100 Central Government Departments to Publicly “Sunshine” Their Budgets in 2026
On March 26th, as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development successively published their departmental budgets, the annual disclosure of central government budgets commenced. On that day, a total of 96 central government departments publicly “aired” their spending plans for the new year.
Budget transparency is a crucial component of government information disclosure, a vital aspect of scientific fiscal management, and an essential requirement for a sound budget system.
“This year marks the beginning of the ’15th Five-Year Plan’ period, making the work of budget disclosure particularly significant. The Ministry of Finance is diligently carrying out the disclosure of the 2026 central budget in accordance with laws and regulations, and is guiding central departments to properly disclose their departmental budgets as required.”
It is understood that regarding the central government budget, the 2026 disclosure covers the status of the central government’s four main budgets, the regional breakdown of central-to-local transfer payments, and related explanations. “In 2026, the number of central-to-local transfer payment projects for which regional breakdown tables are published has increased to 49.”
Regarding central department budgets, the 2026 disclosure covers the overall revenue and expenditure budgets of the departments, fiscal appropriation revenue and expenditure budgets, and explanations of key items.
Reviewing the budget “ledgers” of various central departments reveals that this year, each department has publicly released nine forms, including the Department Overall Revenue and Expenditure Statement and the Fiscal Appropriation Revenue and Expenditure Statement, comprehensively and truthfully reflecting the departments’ overall fiscal situation and the status of fiscal appropriation revenues and expenditures.
The budgets are “aired” in greater detail and are more readable. Alongside publishing the aforementioned budget tables, each department also provides explanations for changes in budget revenues and expenditures, arrangements for administrative operational expenses, “official hospitality, overseas travel, and vehicle maintenance” expenses, government procurement, occupation of state-owned assets, budget performance management, and projects submitted to the National People’s Congress for deliberation. Explanations are also provided for specialized terminology.
To ensure the public can find, understand, and oversee them, in addition to being published on their respective departmental websites, the departmental budgets continue to be centrally published on the “Central Budget and Final Accounts Disclosure Platform” established on the Ministry of Finance’s website, facilitating public oversight of government fiscal work.
Simultaneously, in recent years, the Ministry of Finance has continuously increased its guidance to local governments, urging them to fulfill their primary responsibility for budget transparency, earnestly organizing and implementing budget disclosure work to ensure all that should be made public is made public.
Spending must be accountable, and inefficiency must be questioned. The disclosure of performance targets is a significant part of budget transparency and a powerful measure to enhance the readability of budget disclosures and strengthen public oversight.
“In 2017, the Ministry of Finance organized central departments to publicly disclose project performance targets for the first time. Since then, the scope of disclosure has been gradually expanded, with the number of publicly disclosed performance targets increasing from 10 in 2017 to 809 in 2025.”
Through the disclosure of performance targets, the public can clearly understand information such as a project’s budget allocation, performance goals, cost indicators, output indicators, outcome indicators, and satisfaction indicators.
“Through the disclosure of performance targets, the public not only knows how much money was spent but also what the money was spent on and the cost-effectiveness of those actions.” This also helps promote governments at all levels, various departments, units, and project leaders to improve their levels of budget management, project management, performance management, and fund management, ensuring every penny is spent where it is most needed.
It is understood that this year, central departments should, in principle, publicly disclose the performance target tables for general public budget primary projects, government fund budget projects, and state capital operation budget projects at a ratio not less than 60% of the total project count. “Moving forward, the Ministry of Finance will continue to advance the public disclosure of performance targets, promoting further improvement in their quality.”
