Shenzhen will become the first city in the country to require its public servants to use credit cards to pay for their work costs in a bid to control rampant expenditure.

By June 2007, all public servants in close to 500 government agencies under the municipal government will use the cards to pay for public affairs expenditure, said municipal officials at a launch ceremony Friday.

The specially designed credit cards, issued by the Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), should restrict spending on public affairs through detailed and identifiable bills.

The cards, with serial numbers beginning with 62 and containing individual officials' personal information, will have a credit limit of 50,000 yuan (US$6,250) per month and will not allow cash withdrawal or credit transfers. Payment for office appliances, business trip allowances, communication, meetings, training and entertainment fees will all have to be made by credit card.

As the first of their kind in China, the credit cards will bear the Citizens' Center and the icon of an ox, a symbol of the municipal government's dedication to local citizens since the early 1980s, as a background picture.

Any governmental bureau or department still using cash after June will undergo forced reform.

Vice Mayor Chen Yingchun said the measure would strengthen the municipal government's fiscal management and supervision of expenses on public affairs.

At present, public servants in Shenzhen pay such expenses with cash and have these payments reimbursed with invoices approved by revenue bodies.

(Shenzhen Daily December 4, 2006)