"Yellow label vehicles account for almost half of our total vehicles," Hangzhou Daily quoted the owner of Hangzhou Hangfu Motor Transport Co as saying. "Elimination of them will affect the operation of our business, as well as our revenue."

The paper said government officers had talked to the owner dozens of times and explained the subsidy policies to him for several months. Finally, all the company's yellow label vehicles were removed from the roads last month.

Qinghai province issued a plan for eliminating yellow label vehicles last month. It plans to remove yellow label vehicles registered before 2005 by the end of this year, and all such vehicles by 2017.

The central government plan said the performance of relevant government departments and officials will be evaluated, and they will be punished if their performance is not up to scratch.

Shanghai also increased its emission standards for heavy equipment machines.

The engines of those machines must pass the National III standard if they are diesel ones, and National II standard if they are small spark ignition engines.

Any machines not meeting the standards cannot be sold or used in the city after Oct 1.

Shanghai authorities said that emissions from heavy equipment machines are a key producer of PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter, a factor that has been overlooked for a long time and poorly controlled.