BEIJING -- Rampant manipulation of economic data by provinces has driven a frustrated Chinese government to begin auditing these statistics and propose heavier punishments for violators.

President Xi Jinping will spearhead the crackdown, illustrating the magnitude of the data fraud issue. He intends to use disciplinary tactics from his anti-pollution drive.

The reliability of Chinese statistics has been questioned at home and abroad, as ailing regions are known to overstate figures reported to the central government.

Even the National Bureau of Statistics appears unable to grasp the accurate state of investments, corporate profits and retail sales. Such imprecise knowledge is thought to hurt macroeconomic management.

Data released Oct. 18 shows that China posted a 6.0% gain in real gross domestic product on the year for the third quarter, the slowest growth in 27 years. But Xiang Songzuo, a professor at Renmin University, suspects the expansion was even weaker.

The suspicion is fueled partly by a continuing discrepancy between the sum of GDP figures from localities and the numbers coming from the central government, with regional totals exceeding Beijing's statistics for more than a decade.

Xi has expressed irritation about data falsification, telling a senior official from Liaoning Province to "put an absolute end to such culture." His demand came at the National People's Congress in March 2017, after the province was found to have inflated statistics.

But in March of this year, an official of the congress -- China's legislature -- lamented that data manipulation had "not ended even with the ban."

Inspectors from the National Bureau of Statistics will begin the country's first-ever audits of such data, checking nine areas and two central government agencies over one month through late November. They will interview staff and examine statistical materials and meeting minutes.

By 2022, audits will occur at all government agencies, provinces, autonomous regions and the four municipalities directly administered by the government: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. The findings will be reported to the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and other bodies, including a personnel organ.

Xi appears to be adopting tactics from his anti-pollution push, fueled by inspections. As more regional officials were punished, localities cracked down on polluting companies. The government wants to repeat this for economic data, creating fear of discipline among bureaucrats to find offenders.

The National Bureau of Statistics also has hammered out amendments to a relevant law, aiming to have them approved and take effect as early as next year.

The revisions center on harsher punishment. Enterprises or groups that fabricate or falsify figures will be fined up to 3% of their fraudulent amount.

If a company with sales of 100 million yuan ($14.1 million) inflates the number to 200 million yuan, the fine would be 3 million yuan -- 3% of the padded 100 million yuan. Current law caps the fine at 200,000 yuan for any type of fraud.

Fines will reach up to 500,000 yuan if the exact amount of manipulation is unclear, such as when a bureaucrat coerces a company to misstate numbers. Penalties for individual business owners will increase to a maximum of 50,000 yuan, from the current limit of 10,000 yuan.

Delayed reports will prompt a fine of up to 100,000 yuan for corporations and groups, rising from the present cap of 10,000 yuan. Individual business owners will be fined up to 5,000 yuan, instead of the 1,000-yuan cap at present.

Non-business owners also will become subject to fines. An individual who fails to cooperate with the national census or other important surveys will receive a penalty of up to 2,000 yuan, reflecting a growing public reluctance to participate.

The revisions also will put violators on a public blacklist that prohibits individuals from activities such as traveling by air or train. Such people include those who refuse to repay money despite a court order.

The amendments stipulate that any figures released by localities or government agencies shall have no discrepancies with data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

But critics say this move to consolidate data could make manipulation easier for the bureau itself.

Guangdong Province canceled the release of its local business sentiment index last autumn, and the city of Shenzhen decided not to disclose real estate prices this spring, because the statistics bureau publishes such data.

"The statistics bureau is almost monopolizing data," said Nie Huihua, professor at Renmin University. "Data is the foundation of a modern society, and data monopoly could accelerate information asymmetry."