China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Friday that the country's fiscal revenue surged 33.1 percent over the previous year to 2.61 trillion yuan (401.54 billion U.S. dollars) during the first quarter.

Of the total, the central fiscal revenue hit 1.306 trillion yuan, up 31.5 percent from the previous year, while local governments collected 1.307 trillion yuan, up 34.7 percent, the ministry said in a statement on its official website.

In March, the nation's fiscal revenue jumped 26.7 percent from one year earlier to 763.14 billion yuan, down from the 41.5-percent growth in February and January' s 32.8-percent increase.

Of the March fiscal revenue, the central government collected 353.3 billion yuan and local governments gathered the rest, the statement said.

The ministry attributed the increased fiscal revenues to robust economic growth and price hikes.

China's economy grew 9.7 percent in the first quarter, outpacing expectations. Further, industrial value-added output increased 14.4 percent, retail sales of consumer goods rose 16.3 percent and fixed-asset investment climbed 25 percent during the same period, leading to rapid gains in value-added taxes and corporate income taxes. ' Value-added tax revenues jumped 23.2 percent over the past year to 626.5 billion yuan in the first three months. Consumption taxes and corporate income taxes gained 21.5 percent and 37.9 percent, reaching 207.9 billion yuan and 343.3 billion yuan, the statement said.

Bai Jingming, vice finance minister, said that price hikes were a major reason behind the tax increase. Consumer prices in China climbed to a 32-month high of 5.4 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday and inflation accelerated to 5 percent on a quarterly basis.

Also, high commodity prices pushed sales up and taxes jumped accordingly, Bai said.

China's record imports in the first quarter also helped boost tax income, he noted. The country saw the first quarterly trade deficit of 1.02 billion U.S. dollars in six years during the first three months.

Its first-quarter imports soared 32.6 percent to 400.66 billion dollars from one year earlier, leading to a 48.8-percent rise in import-related taxes and a 47.5-percent increase in tariffs.

China's import-related taxes will continue to rise as the country further increases imports and pays more attention to the balance of its foreign trade, Bai added.

However, the ministry noted that the growth of fiscal revenue is likely to slow in coming months due to the government's strict tightening measures on the property market.

Measures taken by the government to curb inflation, such as the implementation of prudent monetary policy, would also hinder the growth of fiscal revenue, said Liu Shangxi, deputy director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science of the MOF.

Meanwhile, the nation's fiscal expenditures grew 26 percent to 1.81 trillion yuan during the Jan-March period. The central government spent 313 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1 percent, while local governments' expenditures rose 29.6 percent to 1.49 trillion yuan, the statement said.

Fiscal revenues in China include taxes as well as administrative fees and other government income, such as fines and income from state-owned assets.