Being invited out for a meal by a government official in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, is going to be an austere affair now that a regulation requires that the bill can come to no more than 60 yuan ($9.40) per person. 

The regulation, which comes in effect this month and was jointly issued by the Wenzhou City Committee of the CPC and the Commission for Discipline Inspection, prevents officials from treating their guests to several expensive foods such as shark fin, abalone, wild yellow croaker and sea cucumber.

Banquets organized to welcome important guests or perhaps seal a deal can sometimes cost tens of thousands of yuan. Even a bottle of Chinese liquor, known as baijiu, can cost thousands of yuan. The regulation also bans high-end liquors such as Moutai and Wuliangye from adding to the merriment and prestige of an official banquet.

The public has heaped loads of criticism on government officials for lavish spending at official banquets. In 2011, the Ministry of Finance reported that 1.4 billion yuan was spent on official receptions by central government departments.  

Wenzhou's new regulation also prevents official banquets from being held in any star-rated hotel, although it is not clear if that would ban all receptions at all hotels.

"We will be very serious in implementing the regulation. Officials will be required to submit a receipt and a list of the dishes they ordered, leaving no room for them to bypass the regulation," Lin Zhanxiao, general office director of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, told the Xinhua News Agency Sunday.

An official surnamed Zhao from Shanghai's Minhang district, who was unwilling to be identified, told the Global Times that the regulation will prevent officials from falsifying the amount they spend on a banquet.

"Demanding officials submit a restaurant receipt, along with their food order is an efficient way to trim overspending of public funds," Zhao said.

An official from the commission quoted by Wenzhou City News said that some officials previously spent so much on banquets that they had to divert money from other government expenditures to pay the bill.

Not everyone thinks the new regulation will produce the expected results. Gu Jianguang, an expert from the School of International and Public Affairs at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Global Times that he doubts the regulation will reduce the vast sums that are spent on official banquets.

"There have been a lot of regulations governing banquets, and none are very effective. There was one that restricted the menu of official banquets to only four dishes and a soup, but even that ended up being an empty gesture," Gu said.

The regulation does not restrict officials from attending lavish banquets that are paid for by business leaders or a special interest group seeking favors from government.