Does the Information on the Civil Aviation Development Fund Belong to a State Secret?

【Background】Because the Ministry of Finance refused to disclose the relevant documents of the civil aviation development fund, someone filed an administrative proceeding against the department to the court. But recently on the court, an agent of the Ministry of Finance insisted that the required information was a state secret, and the refusal for disclosure conformed to the procedure. Is it true? Whether is it reasonable for the collection of the civil aviation development fund?

Fu Weigang, executive president of Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, stated that there’s no law in China stipulated the information of the civil aviation development fund as a state secret. On the contrary, in The Temporal Method for the Management on the Collection and Usage of the Civil Aviation Development Fund issued on March 17, 2012, it regulated that the collection, usage and management of the fund should receive the supervision and inspection of the financial and audit departments. Therefore, the court should support the application of the accuser, confirm that the above-mentioned refusal of the Ministry of Finance was illegal, and should decree the Ministry of Finance to provide open governmental information within a definite time.

In countries of the U.S., UK, France and Japan etc., the civil aviation development funds are all collected. But why the generally accepted civil aviation development funds abroad have been repeatedly questioned in China?  Fu pointed out that the basic reason lies in the nontransparency of the fund.

As the civil aviation development fund，it should be used for special purposes like constructing airports, Fu explained, The airport construction is generally funded by local governments, and this is unfair for the local residents. Viewing from this angle, the collection of the civil aviation development fund means users paying, and it is reasonable. However, it is not so in China. For example, the predecessor of the fund was the airport construction fee which had been collected for more than 20 years with a total amount of more than one hundred billion, but there had never been relevant authoritative audits. Therefore, the fund must be transparent to get the trust from the public and to get higher efficiency.

Fu Weigang also thought there were form defects in The Temporal Method for the Management on the Collection and Usage of the Civil Aviation Development Fund. Such rule is only an internal notice issued by the Ministry of Finance to the Civil Aviation Administration and all airlines but not a legal provision.

Secondly, in order for the reasonable operation of the fund, there should be a good information disclosure mechanism, but in the current Method, there is no relevant regulations. Under the mechanism that there is no information disclosure, whether there is efficient operation, the doubt exists. Therefore the key of the problem lies in the reasonable collection and distribution of the fund.

(CAIXIN.COM | Reporter: Wang Xiaoxiao | 2013-8-6)