政府审计与城投债隐性担保

Government Audit and Invisible Guarantee of City Investment Bonds

2014年,国务院发布《关于加强地方政府性债务管理的意见》,明确规定政府不得经由企业举债并为企业偿还债务,并强调在该文发布后新发行的城投债一律不属于政府债务范围,抑制地方政府隐性债务的进一步扩张。城投债似乎就此退出了政府债券的舞台,并将作为普通的企业债存续。然而城投债的特殊性质又让人不禁思索,地方政府行为是否对城投债仍有影响?政府审计作为对政府举债的监督机制,从多年来中央政府严格管控地方政府隐性债务的政策态度来看,政府审计可以对城投债的隐性担保起到一定程度的抑制作用。

The State Council of China issued the“Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Local Government Debt”in 2014,which clearly stipulated that city investment bonds should be distinguished from the liability of local government.Government is not allowed to raise debt through city investment companies and repay the debt for the bonds that companies issued.The newly issued city investment bonds should not be included in the liability of local government after the publication of the opinions,which restrains the further expansion of local government implicit debt.It seems that city investment bonds have withdrawn from the categories of government bonds and will be existing as ordinary corporate bonds.However,the special nature of city investment bonds makes people wonder whether local government still has an impact on city investment bonds?As a supervision mechanism of government debt,government audit can restrain the implicit guarantee of city investment bonds to a certain extent from the policy attitude of the central government to strictly control the implicit debt of local governments for years.