Parking fees short in Beijing

A parking warden waits for cars to park in Beijing on Nov 1, 2014. [Photo/CFP]

Report says unregulated collection companies may not be handing over money as required

Parking fee collection in Beijing is coming up short, according to a report in Beijing News on Monday.

Official figures for the annual parking fees collected for parking spaces on the roadsides in Beijing are only available for 2009 and 2010. Total fees collected for the two years were less than 60 million yuan ($9.6 million).

Based on the schedule of charges published by the municipal government, the total fees collected for the 40,000 roadside parking spaces in Beijing last year should exceed 300 million yuan, the report said.

Experts said better oversight is needed for companies that collect the fees to ensure that the money for parking in public spaces goes to public accounts rather than into private pockets.

An official with the Beijing Commission of Transport told the newspaper it was difficult for the government to collect parking fees from the collecting companies, but did not elaborate.

Less than half of all parking fees collected by the companies have been counted as government revenue in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and almost no such fees were collected by the government in Tianjin, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to the Beijing News report, many parking fee collectors in Beijing operate outside of government regulations. Some "companies" run without certificates or with fake certificates. And some subcontract parking spaces to others. For both parties to make a profit, it would be necessary to increase fees and pass the cost along to car users.