According to a report released by China's Ministry of Transport,the country's roads system lost US$25.32 billion in 2014. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

Several Chinese media outlets reported that China's Ministry of Transport held a press conference on June 30 to publish its 2014 turnpikes report. According to the report, the total revenue of toll roads throughout the country in 2014 stood at 392 billion yuan (US$63.19 billion), while expenditures were 549 billion yuan (US$88.49 billion). The gap between revenue and expending was 157.11 billion yuan (US$25.32 billion), making 2014 another bad year for toll roads. The roads system lost 90 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) more than in 2013, when the system lost 66.1 billion yuan (US$10.65 billion).

Such results are not unheard of, but the key problem is that simply releasing such data will not set people's minds at ease. To increase its credibility, the Ministry of Transport must provide the public with detailed account books of its revenues and expenditures.

The first account book should detail whether all the listed companies that operate toll roads under the Ministry of Transport have issued new shares or brought in strategic investors in 2014. This account book should also explain where the revenue theses companies received was used and whether the proceeds were used to pay loans. This part of revenue is important for the toll roads system and should not be neglected.

The second account book should detail how much new debt was added in 2014 and why total expenditures that year were 110 billion yuan more than those of 2013. In order to ensure stable economic growth, infrastructure construction projects were clearly expanded throughout the previous year, so it is understandable that the toll road system's cost increased. But the account book must be clear, and the full contents must be shown to the public.

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