flats. But once this is done, the Government should not
continue to take excessive care of these people but should
instead concentrate its attention on others who have not been
offered public housing accommodation or those who have no
chance of buying HOS flats.
When the Home Ownership Scheme was first launched, the
very high land value was excluded in determining the selling
groups. At that time, such a policy undoubtedly had a positive
meaning. However, the continued exclusion of the land value
(or part of it) in the selling prices of the HOS flats in the
face of decreased land values and considerable increases in the
real income of the citizens is open to question. Even if the
land value is included, I believe that the price for the HOS
flats are still far below those in the private sector as long
as the profit element is excluded, and they will remain
attractive to the middle and lower income groups. Though the
pricing policy of excluding land value has benefited those who
purchased the HOS flats, it reduces Government revenue and thus
hampers its financial ability to construct more HOS flats.
This in turn reduces the opportunity of those who have not yet
bought HOS flats to purchase one in the future. Therefore, I think the Government should revise the present policy so as to
include at least part of the land value in the selling prices
and use the increased proceeds to finance the construction of
more HOS flats for the middle and lower income groups.
(3) Imposition of duty on non-alcoholic beverages
On the question of increasing revenue, the Financial
Secretary has put forward three reasons for the re-introduction
of the duty on non-alcoholic beverages, the main ones being
that such drinks are a pleasing indulgence and not a necessity
and that the potential yield of revenue from this source is significant. While strongly supporting the principle of taxing
indulgence, I am afraid I do not concur that non-alcoholic
beverages are the best targets for raising revenue.
non-alcoholic drinks such as aerated waters have already become
Many