BEIJING , March 9 --- The central government will require an additional three years of use for official vehicles for ministers and governors to reduce the costs of purchasing new cars, media have reported. The new rule has been applied among all Party and government departments nationwide, theBeijing Newsreported on Tuesday. The new rule has not yet been made public, said Li, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee. Under the old rules, the cars used by minister-level officials could be replaced as often as every five years, Li said. These officials will also keep the same cars when they assume new posts, he added. The new rule also reiterated  that officials ranking below minister-or-governor-levels should not be allocated cars. The cars possessed by their departments should be used on demand. "It violates the rules for lower-ranking --- even county-level-officials to be allocated cars," Li said. Purchases of vehicles for official use have been heavily investigated, as they account for a large expenditure   of public funds every year. A survey on the Web news www.ifeng.com found 64 percent of respondents believed the new rule will be difficult to carry out because it is related to officials' interests. "Local government departments had halted  approvals for requests for such vehicles and had started to work on new quotas  under the new rules," Li said. "The future reform of official vehicle use will introduce market mechanisms and monetization." Premier Wen Jiabao said in the annual government work report on Saturday that expenditures on such vehicles will not increase in 2011 compared with a year ago. Beijing's standing deputy mayor Ji Lin last week said the municipal   government will release the number of vehicles for official use in the capital as early as at the end of this month. Earlier this month, the Minister of Finance had published a rule regulating the budgets for such vehicles. What is the purpose of the new rule allocating vehicles among officials?
To promote a low-carbon lifestyle. To cut down the present huge expenditures of purchasing cars. To make good use of budgets for official cars. To solve the problem of severe traffic jam.