BEIJING - China's fiscal revenue went down 14.3 percent year on year to 4.6 trillion yuan (about US$650.4 billion) in the first quarter, official data showed Monday.

From January to March, the fiscal spending totaled 5.53 trillion yuan, down 5.7 percent year on year, the Ministry of Finance said.

The MOF attributed the decline in fiscal revenue to COVID-19 and other factors such as the country's massive tax and fee cuts

Health expenditure rose  4.8 percent to 497.6 billion yuan in the first quarter.

The MOF attributed the decline in fiscal revenue to COVID-19 and other factors such as the country's massive tax and fee cuts.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the tax base was reduced, and measures such as tax reduction, exemption and deferred payment have been taken to support the prevention and control of the epidemic, thus lowering the growth rate of national fiscal revenue by about 10 percentage points, the MOF said.

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Looking ahead to the second quarter, fiscal revenue is expected to decline, but with the accelerated restoration of production and living order, the decline in fiscal revenue will gradually narrow, said Liu Jinyun, an official with the MOF.

China's fiscal revenue climbed 3.8 percent year on year to 19.04 trillion yuan last year, a slower growth pace compared with 2018 as the country launched massive tax and fee cuts to support economic growth, thus resulting in a sharp decline in its tax revenue growth.