Boosted by improved economic growth, East China's Zhejiang Province, one of the country's major contributors to central government revenue, saw positive growth in fiscal revenue in August, providing further support for the completion of the task of handing over fiscal revenue to the central government.

According to data released by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance on Monday, after a significant revenue decline of 12 percent in July, the general public budget revenue of the province in August reached 54.9 billion yuan ($7.83 billion), an increase of about 1 percent year-on-year.

In the first eight months this year, the province's general public budget revenue totaled 624.6 billion yuan, up 3.1 percent after deducting factors like tax refunds, completing 71 percent of the budget planned at the beginning of 2022.

The positive growth in Zhejiang's fiscal revenue is partly thanks to improved economic growth and support policies, experts noted.

According to data from the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, in August the province's industrial added value increased 9.9 percent year-on-year, 3.8 percentage points higher than the previous month. In addition, the revenue of enterprises in the services industry also rebounded in August, with accelerated growth of fixed-asset investment and foreign trade.

In addition to the steady economic recovery driving Zhejiang's revenue growth, the large-scale refunding of value-added tax (VAT) is nearing an end, which is also favorable for local revenue growth.

This year, in order to provide relief to enterprises, the State Council implemented an unprecedented policy of VAT refunds, which had exceeded 2 trillion yuan by the end of August. Data from the Zhejiang Provincial Tax Service showed that in the first seven months this year, the value of VAT refunds amounted to 170.4 billion yuan.

This may cause a short-term reduction in fiscal revenue, but in the long term it is conducive to nourishing tax sources and stimulating market vitality, analysts said.

As Zhejiang is a significant province in terms of fiscal revenue, its performance also contributed to the positive growth in national fiscal revenue in August.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the national general public budget revenue grew 5.6 percent in August, compared with a 4.1 percent decline in the previous month. It was the first positive growth since April this year.