China to limit expenses of SOE executives

BEIJING, April 8 -- China has established a central-level task force to limit the business expenses of senior executives in state-owned enterprises, following a similar move in March when the executives were told their incomes would be capped.

Senior executives of those state-owned companies will have to submit their detailed business expenses between 2006 and 2008 before April 10, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Supervision and the National Audit Office.

The expenses should cover stakes held by company officials in state-owned assets and the use of public transport and phones by executives, their spending on gifts, local and overseas travel and club memberships.

Companies will also have to reveal the annual incomes of their executives for the last three years along with the number of executives. The average annual incomes of employees will also have to be supplied for reference.

In March, the Ministry of Finance ordered government officials to cut spending on overseas trips, car purchases and entertainment after a string of scandals involving officials going overseas supposedly on business trips on the public purse when in fact they spent most of their time shopping and sightseeing.

Spending this year on business trips abroad by officials will have to be cut by 20 percent from the average level of the last three years while that on cars will have to drop by 15 percent and entertainment by 10 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, China's State-owed Assets Supervision and Administration Commission called for lower salaries for senior executives as their extraordinarily high salaries repeatedly aroused public ire.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)