Policies to help the poor financially are a special component of the financial policies and an incarnation of the state helping with financial policies. They include a series of preferential treatments in revenue tax as well as some temporary measures in financial policies, which prompt economic development in poverty-stricken areas.

Approved by the State Council, in 1980's state financial budget, the Ministry of Finance set up a development fund for supporting less economically developed areas. This marked the onset of the Chinese government helping the poor in a newly planned and organized way. From 1980 to 1994, the Development Fund altogether spent 16.14 billion yuan and supported 1,410 counties and 9,876 township and village enterprises.