To promote frugality, the government auctioned cars previously assigned to different agencies and officials, who were instead given transportation allowances based on their ranks. (Photo : Reuters)
The Ministry of Finance announced on Friday that government spending on overseas travel, official transportation and reception will get another decrease of 11.7 percent this year in a bid to promote frugality. The ministry further said that a budget of 6.31 billion yuan ($1.03 billion) has already been allocated for these three categories.
The budget for vehicles is apparently the biggest segment in overall reduction as this particular section has already been cut 16.2 percent year on year in accordance to last year's government reforms to reduce unnecessary travel spending.
In 2014, the government spent a staggering amount of 6.56 billion yuan on overseas travels, vehicles and receptions. Among the three categories, official vehicle spending constituted more than 50 percent of the entire budget spent.
Last year's spending has already dropped 30 percent compared with the 2010 figure of 9.47 billion yuan.
Public administration professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance Zhu Lijia said that "the reduced government budgets are a result of central government's frugality efforts in the past two years."
Government spending on overseas travel, official vehicles, and receptions has been on decline since 2011 when government records were made public for the first time.
Zhu said that since the amended Budget Law took effect in January, it requires transparency by way of detailed breakdown of government budget and spending. Zhu said this has contributed greatly to the reduced budget.
Zhu further said: "Despite the budget reductions this year, I think there is room for further cuts."
A new guideline released by State Council in 2014 requires government departments to reduce their car fleets and most officials will no longer have access to state vehicles. Most officials will receive transportation subsidies instead, which will be based on their ranks.
Currently, more than 760 official vehicles assigned to different government departments and officials have been auctioned since January, and another 2,000 more vehicles will follow in the coming months.
Of late, local governments are also pushing for reforms on the local level, cutting the number of vehicles to reduce overall government spending.
