Chinese Local Government workers have been ordered to pay back bonuses as plummeting tax revenues start to bite in the wake of economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public Servants and teachers at public institutions in Henan, Jiangxi, and Guangdong Provinces were recently charged 20,000 yuan ($A4,140) each in repayments for the first quarter of 2021, and were informed that all future bonuses had been suspended indefinitely.
The move comes amid growing calls from the ruling Chinese Communist Party to tighten the public purse-strings.
The austerity moves reportedly began last month when the Nanchang Water Resources Bureau in the eastern Province of Jiangxi ordered State employees to repay their bonuses within 10 days.
Then authorities in Dexing City ordered teachers to repay bonuses to their schools.
An academic based in Jiangxi’s Jingdezhen City, Li Qiao, said the repayment demands indicated the Government was undergoing a fiscal crisis.
“Regardless of the authorities’ claims of bumper harvests of economic growth, closed-down shops and businesses are everywhere, and there is unemployment, while the pandemic is still under way,” Mr Li said.
“That is bound to take a toll on tax revenues, and financial difficulties are inevitable. Reductions in bonuses and other benefits are already happening,” he said.
Public Service bonuses have been suspended in Shanghai, Jiangxi, Henan, Shandong, Chongqing, Hubei and Guangdong, according to Weibo posts from people living in those places.
Government employers in Guangdong’s Chaozhou City were ordered at the beginning of this month to stop paying out housing subsidies and performance-related bonuses, according to one post.
Three days later Shanwei City followed suit.
Salaries for low-ranking Public Servants, primary and secondary school teachers typically range from 2,000-to-4,000 yuan ($A414-to-$A828) a month, with the Government providing a wide range of child support payments, mortgage rebates and other benefits to top them up.
Beijing, 14 July 2021
