GUANGZHOU - Authorities in this southern city plan to cancel an administrative fee that had been collected from migrant residents for the purpose of providing them with security, according to local media.

Since 2004, migrants who have secured temporary permits to live in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, have been asked to pay 2.5 yuan (40 cents) a month to the city.

The fee was collected to pay for measures meant to keep both local and migrant residents safe, according to a notice posted by the Guangzhou price bureau in late 2003.

The Guangzhou-based New Express Daily cited unnamed sources as saying that local authorities have told all centers that manage rental housing to cease collecting the fees starting on July 25.

On Monday, sources within the Guangzhou floating population management office confirmed that the fee has been suspended.

"But it has yet to be officially announced," a deputy director of the office, surnamed Chen, told China Daily.

Zou Yuanliang, a spokesman with the political and legislative affairs committee of Guangzhou, said the suspension will benefit migrant residents.

"It will help improve their sense of belonging to the city," he told China Daily.

City authorities have pledged to have better dealings with migrants following an outbreak of unrest on June 10 in Zengcheng, a suburb of Guangzhou.

More than 200 migrant workers were then involved in a mass incident that began when a pregnant migrant woman and her husband were injured in a conflict with an assistant to the police.

Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang said local and migrant residents must have equal access to public services.

"They should be called 'new Guangzhou people' rather than migrant people," Wan said at a recent government meeting. "Like local people, they should be able to benefit from the city's social and economic development."

Guangzhou is now home to more than seven million registered migrants. They constitute nearly half of the city's population, according to official statistics.

"This is the right time for the government to cancel this fee," said Wang Feng, a migrant from Central China's Hunan province.

"More favorable policies will help to keep migrants with good skills in the city."