China is confident of achieving all fiscal targets and tasks set for this year, Finance Minister Liu Kun said in an interview with Xinhua Thursday.

The country's economic fundamentals remain unchanged, and its economy is steadily recovering, he said.

China's economy has picked up since the second quarter, with production demand recovering and key economic indicators improving, Liu said.

As a result of combined effect by the pandemic, tax cuts and fee reductions, the central government's general public budget revenue in the first half of the year fell by 10.8 percent from a year earlier, said Liu. 

"With the progress of resuming work and production and in helping companies to weather the difficulties, fiscal revenue in June edged up by 3.2 percent year on year, swinging back to positive territory and marking the first monthly positive growth this year."

In recent years, China has continued to promote tax cuts and fee reductions. A case in point is the large-scale tax and fee reduction measures in 2019, which reduced the social burden by 2.36 trillion yuan throughout the year and enabled tens of millions of enterprises to enjoy the policy dividends, according to Liu.

"Since the beginning of this year, in the face of a severe and complex situation, the central government has issued a series of tax and fee reduction policies. It is estimated that the next round of measures will exceed 2.5 trillion yuan, bolstering resumption of work and production in various industries."

China plans to issue 3.75 trillion yuan (about 528.91 billion U.S. dollars) of special local government bonds this year, 1.6 trillion yuan more than last year. China will effectively manage and use special bonds, and hold to the bottom line of avoiding systemic risks.

China has issued 100 billion yuan (about 14.1 billion U.S. dollars) of special government bonds for COVID-19 control measures in a bid to support local infrastructure construction and epidemic prevention and control, the senior official added.

It is set to counter the downward pressure on economic growth, expand tax and fee reduction policies to help enterprises tide over hard times, and strengthen budget balance to mitigate the adverse impact of the epidemic on fiscal revenue growth.

The ministry will work hard to ensure stability in six fronts and security in six areas and pursue a more proactive and impactful fiscal policy to achieve high-quality development, Liu said.

The six fronts are employment, financial sector, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and expectations. The six areas refer to job security, basic living needs, operations of market entities, food and energy security, stable industrial and supply chains and the normal functioning of primary-level governments.

(With input from Xinhua)