China's Ministry of Finance said Monday that the country's fiscal revenue in May rose 4.8 percent year on year to 656.95 billion yuan (96.05 billion U.S. dollars).

In the first five months of this year, the revenue fell 6.7 percent to 2.711 trillion yuan, said the ministry.

Fiscal revenue includes taxes as well as administrative fees and other government income, such as fines and income from government-owned assets.

The ministry attributed the revenue decline mainly to shrinking business profits amid the tough period and active fiscal policies including tax cuts and increased export tax rebates to buoy economic growth.

In May, fiscal expenditures climbed 14.5 percent to 460.8 billion yuan from a year ago. From January to May, the figure stood at 2.25 trillion yuan, up 27.8 percent from the same period last year.

China unveiled a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package in November to be spent over the next two years, with 1.18 trillion yuan from the central government.

Fiscal revenue exceeded 6.13 trillion yuan in 2008, up 19.5 percent over the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2009)