中国今年首次下调油价

After the adjustment, some regions in China have seen gasoline prices drop below eight yuan per liter. Yet the prices in other areas remain above that level. In Beijing, the price of 93-octane gasoline has dropped to 8.08 a liter from 8.33 yuan a liter.

Yet, many Beijing motorists are complaining about the slight drop in domestic gasoline prices because previous increases had been much higher.

"The oil prices went up very quickly, but when it's time for them to drop in China, they have always been very slow. To be honest, this is quite unreasonable. The cost to fill the tank has doubled inthe past four to five years, but has our income even doubled?"

"I still think the price after adjustment is still a bit high. Our oil prices should follow the international market trend and should be lowered more to meet Chinese consumers' expectations."

Experts indicate that there is still space for international gas prices to drop, which may further lead to price drops in China. International crude oil prices have dropped for more than 22 consecutive working days. This has met the government's requirement of lower domestic gasoline prices.

Han Xiaoping, the energy expert, says domestic gasoline prices are not in sync with international ones because of China's current gasoline pricing system.

"The Chinese government halted the trend of raising gas prices for quite some time when international price were surging. China could have increased prices a long time ago, but it was during the Spring Festival, and the government didn't increase the prices in order to suppress logist cost."

Then should the additional tax on oil charges for taxi also be reduced? Currently, this part of the cost is partially paid by passengers. Han Xiaoping says it's unlikely in a short term.

"We all know that taxi drivers have been suffering from high pressure on surging operational costs, including high gasoline prices. They should have been alleviated of this burden a long time ago. So, if the government considers protecting consumers' benefits, then they need to further reduce oil prices and provide subsidies to taxi drivers instead of levying a tax on passengers. But this is unlikely to happen."

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.