Government and Policy

China to crack down illegal highway tollbooths

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-21 22:18

BEIJING - China has launched a year-long national campaign targeting illegal highway tollbooths amid rising public outcry over the management of the country's tollway system.

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Initiated on Monday by five central government departments, the campaign is designed to eliminate unauthorized tollbooths, as well as legal tollbooths that are continuing to operate beyond their authorization period.

The campaign is also intended to prevent other illegal practices regarding the collection of highway tolls. These practices include changing the status of government-funded roads to make them into for-profit commercial routes and charging unreasonably high tolls in some areas.

Increasingly high toll charges and the establishment of illegal toll stations have long been criticized by the public.

According to a 2008 report issued by the National Audit Office (NAO) on toll roads in 18 of China's provinces, 16 of those provinces were found to have illegally collected a total of 14.9 billion yuan (around $2.3 billion) in toll charges from a total of 158 unauthorized stations on 100 highways as of the end of 2005.

The report also showed that seven provinces had intentionally raised highway tolls, resulting in unapproved toll profits of 8.2 billion yuan.

The auditing body also found that authorities in all 18 provinces spent 29.1 billion yuan in toll revenues on projects and items that the funds were never intended to go to. Highway tolls are supposed to be used to pay back loans that were previously used to fund the construction of the nation's highways.

Media reports said that some local governments have taken to setting up multiple toll stations over short distances, while others have approved the extension of toll collection periods, even after local highway loans have been paid back in full.

One of the most widely criticized examples is the Zhengzhou Yellow River Highway Bridge in central China's Henan Province. The toll bridge which was in use starting from 1986.

The toll bridge went into operation in 1986, funded by 178 million yuan in investments and loans. The bridge was able to pay off its loans in 1996. But in the following years, the bridge continued to collect tolls.

According to another NAO report issued in 2008, the toll bridge collected 1.45 billion yuan in unauthorized tolls.

In Beijing, a toll expressway linking the Beijing Capital International Airport with the downtown area was also widely cited as an example of tolls being collected beyond the authorized term.

Completed in 1993 with a total investment of 1.165 billion yuan, which included 765 million yuan in loans, the expressway collected 3.2 billion yuan in tolls by the end of 2005, far more than it originally cost to build.

In 1997, the Beijing municipal government extended the expressway's toll collection term until 2022. It is estimated that the road will collect more than 9 billion yuan from 2005 to 2022.

Expressways have become lucrative sources of revenue for some local governments. This has made it a challenge for China to halt illegal practices related to toll collection, according to experts.

However, the new campaign is set to rectify this problem.

An executive meeting of the State Council, or China's cabinet, on June 8 vowed to promote the healthy development of the country's logistical industry through a series of new measures, including lowering bridge tolls for shipping companies.

Meanwhile, China's consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, shot to 5.5 percent in May, a 34-month record high, according to official statistics.

Experts believe the latest crackdown on illegal highway tolls will help lower overall costs for the country's logistics sector and stabilize prices in the long run.

"The unjustified toll charges and illegal tollbooths have undermined the efficiency of the logistics sector and driving its costs higher," said Cai Jin, deputy head of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.