COMPACT car maker Chong- qing Changan Automobile said Friday that it was fined 100,000 yuan by the Ministry of Finance for accounting violations involving more than 1.3 billion yuan (US$157 million).

　　Changan said in an announcement that the punishment came after an investigation by the Ministry of Finance in September last year found that it had illegally booked inventory sales to affiliated companies between 1999 and 2000.

　　Changan was found to have booked 39.5 million yuan, or 7 percent of sales, in 1999 and 78.9 million yuan, or 11.6 percent of sales, in 2000, the announcement said.

　　The Ministry of Finance investigation also found that Changan changed its bad debt provisioning policy without obtaining the board’s approval, resulting in a shortfall of 24.65 million yuan in the auto maker’s bad debt provisions for 2000.

　　Changan wrongly booked inventories and due payments totaling 128.08 million yuan for 2000 by using non-standard methods of calculation, according to the announcement.

　　Changan also failed to disclose in its annual report for 2000 that it was suing another company for 10 million yuan.

　　Changan said that it had rectified most of the problems and all the corrective work would be completed by the third quarter of this year.