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BEIJING - A GROUP of Chinese alcohol producers are trying to overturn a ban on government officials enjoying a lunchtime tipple that has seen a fall in restaurant trade, state media reported on Wednesday.
Officials in several cities in central Henan province were banned from drinking during their lunch break a year ago in an effort to improve government efficiency, the Xinhua report said.
But now the Henan Alcohol Association has asked a lawyer, Kang Yinzhong, to look at trying to overturn the ban, the report added.
Kang told Xinhua drinking was a private affair and public officials should not be banned from consuming alcohol as long as it did not affect their work.
He added he would be collecting views from drinks companies and would submit them to the provincial legislature to demand a revision or end to the ban.
Local restaurants said they had seen fewer lunch customers since the ban and had lost out on income, much of which is dependent on booze sales, according to Xinhua.
Despite more than 100 cadres having been reprimanded for flouting the restriction, one official said he found the ban effective.
'Since the ban took effect, I have fallen into the habit of not drinking at midday on workdays,' a local official eating at a restaurant said, according to Xinhua.
China is one of the oldest brewing countries in the world, but has seen a rapid rise in consumption over the past two decades as economic wealth has increased. -- AFP
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