China recovers $333 million from companies cheating green car subsidies: Xiao Jie

China has recovered 2.3 billion yuan ($333 million) from firms that cheated an aid program to promote green energy vehicles, the country’s Finance Minister Xiao Jie told a briefing on Tuesday.

China’s central government has invested billions in aids to strongly promote battery electric and plug-in hybrid automobiles, intending to cut metropolitan air contamination and motivate domestic automakers to leapfrog international competitors in automotive technology.

In 2016, the finance ministry concluded its examination into the cheating scandal, with lots of companies becoming called for wrongfully getting subsidies.

Automakers, primarily coach bus makers, were discovered to have utilized different methods to cheat the program, consisting of fabricating production and sales completely, offering cars to their own leasing business and seeking aids for automobiles that did not fulfill minimum technical requirements.