单选题
Reform on the Road
Will the reform on the use of government cars really reduce office expenditure
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this count? There are no reports
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such an outcome although some local governments have moved in that direction.
Hangzhou government
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its reform last month. Officials below the level of deputy bureau chief cannot use official trips for business trips. Instead they get subsidies between 300 and 2,600 yuan month according to their administrative rank. This reform is supposed to save the government the money involving in
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a large number of cars. Hangzhou in east China Zhejiang province is not the first to attempt
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reform. Nanjing, capital of the neighboring Jiangsu province, did so five years ago. Yet there is no report available of how much money the Nanjing government has saved
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these measures. All that we know about is the fact
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government officials get monthly subsidies for business trips. The public have a right to
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for transparency on the results of such reform
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it is taxpayers" money that is being spent. Transparency is needed because people are
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about policy, makers making policy against their own interests.
Obviously, the subsidies are not based on work needs. Lower level officials usually travel
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than high-ranking officials. Therefore, the impact of reform appears to be diluted. Transparency alone can tell us
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the reform measures have indeed reduced government transport expenditure. If there is no disclosure of amounts saved by the reform, the public may have reason to suspect that the reform is actually a ploy
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the income of officials in the form of a transport subsidy.
The way government cars are used needs to be reformed, The government spending on purchase of cars was 80 billion yuan in 2008, and use and maintenance amounts to around 300 billion yuan a year. A study of ancient Chinese dynasties shows that the more reforms of the tax system, the heavier the taxes eventually
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on subjects.
The only way to prevent this vicious cycles from happening with government car reform today is for the higher authorities to have a strict and
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audit of local finance.