Highway toll collector earns US$1,000 a month
(Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-09-06 17:08

No tie, no high-heeled shoes. Work as a "blue-collar" toll collector on the highway in east China's Jiangsu Province, the salary could be much higher expected by many.

How much? 8,000 yuan (about US$1,000) per month, other benefits not included, and please don't be surprised if a monthly basic salary of 10,000 yuan (about US$1,200) is paid.

Such a high salary scale, however, astonished most of the audiences of a recent meeting in Nanjing, capital of the province, which focused on reducing the financial burdens of enterprises and braking random levies and charges, according to a people.com.cn report.

"8,000 yuan or more, yes, I wish I were a toll collector manning a toll gate on an expressway," a deputy director of the provincial Transport Department satirized.

According to Han Qinghua, deputy secretary of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, expressway operators charge vehicles to repay the loans with which the highways were built. But it turned out that the money collected, as often as not, went to elsewhere rather than to the banks for loan repayment.

"Some expressway managers spent a large portion of toll revenues on welfare for their employees, such as pay rise, instead of repaying the loans in time," explained Han. "Some others continued to charge vehicles even if the loans had been paid off."

Han pointed that some highway operators deliberately delayed loan repayment by putting the revenue into the pockets of their own small interest groups, which added to the heavy burden of both the State and the public investors.

In the eastern China province, as in other areas of the country, toll is collected from vehicles using the expressways, and the charging standards varies in line with the quality of highways and the sources of investment for road construction.

Some of the highway operators charges in excess of the approved charging standards, reported Han.

Although Jiangsu is an economically developed province in China, particularly the southern part of the province, such a pay scale for expressway toll collectors is still considered too high.

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