Public cars being used for private purposes has become a practice of the past in Zixing -- a small city in central China's Hunan Province -- which could be the pioneer in a long-awaited reform that might deprive millions of government officials nationwide of cars and chauffeurs.

Instead of calling their drivers any time of the day, senior government officials in the city now rent a car with subsidy from the municipal budget.

Vehicles used exclusively by officials have been transferred to a municipal rental organization that charges 1.8 yuan (22 US cents) per kilometer in urban areas and 2.3 yuan (28 US cents) in rural areas.

Huang Xiang'e, Party secretary of Zixing, and Wang Zhou, the mayor, are each paid 55,000 yuan (US$6,640) every year as transport allowance, according to sources with the newly-established government-car reform office.

Established in August last year, the office is a temporary organization that deals with the usage of 122 government cars.

The lowest subsidy for division-level officials is 30,000 yuan (US$3,620) per year, said officials, noting that the subsidy is not paid in cash.

"At the end of the year, officials' transportation reimbursement will be calculated by the distance they covered. If they traveled more than the limit, they will pay the extra fees by themselves," Li Taihai, executive deputy director of the reform office said.

If officials do not reach their limit, they will be paid half of the amount they saved, officials said.

However, experts said that some officials would still make money through the reform since they might not need to travel as much.

The reform aims to reduce corruption involving government-used cars as many of them were used for private purposes.

Governmental officials will now telephone the municipal government's transport service when they need a car for official purposes but they cannot pick and choose what vehicle they want -- their choice is restricted by the available cars.

Also, private citizens can hire the government-owned cars.

Earlier this year, Huang Qiang, a resident of Zixing, rented four Passat cars for his wedding ceremony at 480 yuan (US$58) per day.

As a result, each of the 122 public cars registered an average of only 800 kilometers on their odometers after the reform started late last year, said Li Dongjie, deputy head of the transport service. Earlier, the figure was 2,800 kilometers per month.

Sources with the local government predict that the fees paid by the government for car usage will be reduced by half from 6.2 million yuan (US$750,000) to 3.1 million yuan (US$380,000).

"Facts showed that we do not need that many cars," Li Taihai said, adding that the government would auction 42 cars soon.

It is believed that the Hunan provincial government would replicate the reform throughout the province after trying it out for a year in Zixing.

After the central government announced a public-car reform plan in 1998, local governments in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan and Chongqing have made attempts to implement it but it has not become widespread.

China has about 3.5 million government-owned cars and the expenditure has become a great burden on public finances.

(China Daily March 3, 2004)