Putting off the fuel tax is a decision made in the department's interest, not
the nation's, says a signed article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt
follows:
According to the latest circular from the Ministry of
Transportation, fees for road maintenance will continue to be collected in
2007.
The announcement is an explicit statement that the long-expected
fuel tax, anticipated to take the place of the fee, is to be further delayed and
the implementation of clauses in the country's highway law about fuel tax will
be suspended for at least another year.
Besides helping save energy, the
fuel tax will also promote fairness in the use of transport facilities those who
drive more will pay more.
Putting-off the fuel tax further not only
hinders efforts to protect the environment, but also the rule of
law.
After a year-long discussion on the fuel tax and the road
maintenance fee, it is clear that the real reason for putting off the
implementation of fuel tax is that the transport department will face a huge
loss if the fee is no longer collected.
The road maintenance fee is
collected by the transport department and is meant to be spent on keeping the
roads in good shape.
But the fact is that the department pockets the
public service fee and uses it mainly to cover its own expenditure.
An
auditing report on the income and costs of the transport department in Shuozhou,
Shanxi Province, showed that 87 per cent of road maintenance fees collected from
truck owners in 2005 was spent on the administrative costs. Only 13 per cent was
used to repair the roads.
The Shuozhou case, to a certain extent, mirrors
the way the fee is used in transport departments of all levels.
At the
same time, the transport department hires hundreds of thousands of people to
collect the fee every year and check for automobiles trying to evade the
collection. They will lose their jobs if the fee is no longer
collected.
So it's no wonder the transport department is willing to make
every effort to put off the fuel tax. Its efforts are being made to protect its
own interest.
Unfortunately the transport department, or whoever is in
charge of this decision, has forgotten the public and national
interests.
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