A hefty fine imposed on a Shanghai restaurant for serving shredded cucumber without a licence has stirred a debate on social media, with many users from China expressing their anger against the authorities.
A Shanghai restaurant owner was fined 5,000 yuan (nearly Rs 58,000) earlier this month for serving shredded cucumber without a licence, according to a Bloomberg report. This has caused outrage among the public on Chinese social media platform Weibo. A post on this matter has received 9.5 million views on Weibo.
China’s local governments are charging controversial fines on residents and businesses to generate revenue, which often leads to outrage among people, the report added.
ALSO READ | Marriages in China slump to historic low
Recently, instances of controversial fines has been rising. A few truckers in central Henan province, who were questioning the accuracy of the government vehicle weighing machine, were repeatedly fined, and one of them had received tickets totalling $38,000 in the past two years.
Besides this one case, in one of China’s most indebted provinces, Guangxi, a government-owned company waded into a controversy for hiking parking fees last month, causing some commuters to pay thousands of yuans in charges. As Weibo users raised questions against the local authorities for such a decision, the Nanning city mayor apologised at a press conference.
Guangxi alone made 13 billion yuan from fines last year, equivalent to about 14 percent of its tax income, which stood at 9 percent in 2021, the Bloomberg report added quoting an analysis of government data by Caijing Industry Research Center.
ALSO READ | Big Japan sushi chain files $480,000 lawsuit against boy for licking soy bottles after losing billions
Last year, a state council inspection found that due to the pandemic and other economic difficulties, the government’s penalties had become stricter and more serious, the Bloomberg report added.
The central government, on the other hand, has reiterated this month that the provinces have to fix their hidden debt issues on their own, which has negatively affected the public.
