The Beijing resident who applied for the disclosure of government information on transportation smart cards received a disappointing reply from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development Reform yesterday, said Wang Yu, a former lawyer assisting on the case.
"We don't think our questions were answered in their e-mail; they just attached government documents which are outdated," said Wang.
Liu Wei, a Beijing resident, appealed to four government departments, including the commission, for the disclosure of information pertaining to the use of the deposit money from public transportation smart cards on March 28. Travelers must pay a 20-yuan ($3.2) deposit per card.
Wang said they asked the commission to disclose the regulation on which they based their decision to charge for the cards, and also if the deposit should have been decided in a public hearing.
Utility prices, such as gas and water, are decided after public hearings.
"In their response to the public hearing query, they listed the catalogs of public price hearings issued in 2002, but the cards were put into use years later," said Wang.
Transit IC cards were first issued on June 10, 2006, and 1.49 million people bought the card on that day, said the Xinhua News Agency.
Other documents sent to explain the legal basis for charging the deposit dated from 2003 and 2006.
In 2009, when Shanghai lawyer Dong Zhengwei proposed that charging a 20-yuan deposit violated China's contract law, the commission promised to remove these outdated documents and update them, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.
Neither the commission nor Municipal Administration and Communications Card Company, which issues the cards, could be reached for comment yesterday.
"We'll wait for the answers from the other three government departments, and hopefully they'll make more sense than the e-mail we got today," said Wang.
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