Abstract:

Forestry taxes and fees reform is an important part of collective forest property rights system reform (CFPRSR). Remission of taxes and fees increases foresters income, and however reduces fiscal revenues of counties and townships in many forest regions, which impact the governance capacity of local governments. Based on the experiences of Ganzhou administrative region in Jiangxi Province, this paper analyzed the impact of CFPRSR on fiscal revenue at the county-level and organizations management and public service capacity at the county and township levels. It showed that forestry fees reduction was the main factor for the local fiscal revenue reductions of Ganzhou after CFPRSR, which accounted for 55.1% of the reduction amount of local fiscal revenue. In terms of budgetary gap, the local forestry revenue reduction accounted for 29% and the additional expenditure accounted for 71% of the gap which was the main factor for increasing financial pressure on local government so much that the grassroots organizations in the forest regions faced more difficulties in local society management and public service capacity. All the impact had adverse influence on the forest resource management and consolidation of CFPRSR achievement.This paper suggested that we should do our best to promote rural comprehensive reform and improve the forestry fund management system and set up public financial mechanism for townships in forest regions as soon as possible.

Key words: fiscal revenue of counties and townships, collective forest property rights system reform (CFPRSR), Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province