On April 12th , Professor Bhajan S. Grewal made a lecture for the students and teachers of School of Public Finance (SPF), CUFE. The title of the lecture is Tax Sharing and Fiscal Equalization in Australia. Professor Jiang Aihua, deputy dean of SPF, moderated the lecture with over 100 postgraduates and teachers attending.

Professor Bhajan Grewal is the director of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (CSES) at Victoria University, Australia. His principal research interests are governance, public finances, fiscal decentralisation, federalism and regional economies. He has long experience of working on China’s economy and public finances. He also maintains friendly cooperation relationship with CUFE.

At the very beginning of the lecture, Professor Bhajan introduced the background of Australia’s Commonwealth Constitution. Subsequently, he introduced the current condition of Tax Sharing among commonwealth, state and the local government, as well as the problems about vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances. At the final part of the lecture, he made a detailed introduction about the intergovernmental fiscal transfers system, including General Revenue Payments and Specific Purpose Payments. He also quoted several cases such as different conditions in Canada and German to support his perspectives.

Professor Bhajan explained profound theories in simple language. The lecture ended in a relaxed and active atmosphere.