Authorities roll out rules for living ‘tight life’

Regulations on government vehicles, brewing tea among cost-cutting measures

Local government and Communist Party agencies are rolling out rules to cut spending, including greater use of new-energy vehicles, less tea and fewer indoor plants.

They vowed to “get used to living a tight life” in every aspect, in keeping with Beijing’s persistent call as the country’s economy falters.

The northwestern province of Shaanxi has mandated that new-energy vehicles account for at least 40 per cent of newly procured and replaced official vehicles at the provincial level, excluding those for special purposes, according to the official Shaanxi Daily newspaper.

In Fujian province in southeastern China, “personal use of public resources” – such as using office supplies to print test papers and workbooks for employees’ children – should be “resolutely eliminated”, the Changting county education bureau said in a notice to all faculty and staff on Sunday.

“[We should] resolutely wipe out the prolonged practice of sitting around and brewing tea in the office,” it added. Fujian is one of the major tea-producing provinces of the nation.

The government office administration of the city of Luan in nearby Anhui province pledged on Sunday to cut the overall number of indoor plants in office areas by a third, estimating it would save more than 30,000 yuan (HK$32,500) a year.

It also ruled that no agency should use more than three vehicles a day and same-day return was required, except under special circumstances.

Beijing has told both central and local governments to cut spending amid intense downward economic pressure.

While delivering his annual government work report last month, Premier Li Qiang urged the government to get used to “tightening their belt”.

That call has been repeated many times in recent years, including by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the top anti-corruption agency.

“Living within tight financial constraints is not a temporary measure or expedient, but a principle and guideline that needs to be adhered to in the long term,” it said in January.

In frugality campaigns across the country, local authorities have vowed to conserve daily resources, promoting water-saving appliances, efficient lighting sources and a paperless working environment.

“Every employee can start by reducing travel expenses, saving water and electricity costs, to truly practise the concept of ‘all costs can be reduced’,” the party branch of an iron-making plant in Yunnan province said on Sunday.