Starting in June, officials in the capital of south China's Guangdong Province will no longer be able to use government-owned cars after working hours. Instead, they will have to pay to use them.
The municipal government of Guangzhou is mulling over collecting fares from officials for after-hours use of government-owned vehicles, ranging from 1.5 yuan to 1.7 yuan (23 to 26 US cents) per kilometer.
This is part of the Guangzhou government's efforts in reforming the use of government-owned vehicles to curb expenditure on them.
In order to carry out the reform, the Guangzhou government is planning to install GPS devices on all government-owned cars before June this year to effectively monitor the use of them.
Government-owned cars are not allowed to be used for personal use, in principle, after work or on weekends, said Su Zhijia, secretary of Guangzhou Discipline Inspection Committee, the city's graft monitoring body.
It is a common practice, however, for Chinese officials to use government-owned vehicles for private business after work, which has long been criticized by the public who are eager to see a clean and economical government.
The annual cost to run a government-owned car, including oil, insurance, maintenance, repair and payment to the driver, is as high as 80,000 to 100,000 yuan in some places - enough to buy an economy car.
