New Budget Law to improve efficiency: officials

BEIJING - China's new Budget Law taking effect on Jan. 1, 2015 will focus on budgetary performance and prompt governments to spend more effectively, a senior finance official said on Monday.

Wang Bao'an, vice minister of finance, said during a seminar in Beijing that this is the first time that the law has included specifications on management of budgets and that it will lay the foundation for budget reform.

It attaches greater significance to whether budgets are met and will impel government organs to provide better public services with less expenditure, Wang said.

Jia Kang, vice president of the Chinese Finance Society, said the law will force the governments to reserve money for key points.

China's government organs have tended to go on spending sprees before the end of each year to use any remaining money from the budget set the previous year, generating waste and criticism.