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THE ECONOMY
advertise the sale. These measures helped to improve discipline in the course of sale and make it more costly and difficult for speculators to acquire a significant number of flat entitlements. In addition, the government would seek to increase the supply of land for residential property development in the future. The Sino-British Land Commission had agreed that an additional 5.9 hectares of land for private residential use be included in the Land Disposal Programme for 1991-2.
Further measures to curb property speculation were announced early in November. These included (a) requiring stamp duty to be paid on completion of each sale and purchase agreement, rather than on completion of property assignment, except for flats purchased under the Home Ownership Scheme; (b) restricting the private allocation of uncompleted flats to not more than half the flats for which consent for pre-completion sale is given; (c) imposing restrictions on the timing of resale of privately allocated uncompleted flats; (d) requiring disclosure of information on all intermediary sales of uncompleted flats; (e) requiring deposits for the purchase of uncompleted flats to be made in bank drafts and not in cheques, and (ƒ) increasing the role of the Consumer Council in overseeing matters relating to the property market.
Structure of Government Accounts
In accounting terms, the public sector is taken to include the Hong Kong Government itself, the Housing Authority and Urban and Regional Councils. Government grants and subventions to institutions in the private or quasi-private sectors are included but expenditure by organisations in which the government has only equity, such as the Mass Transit Railway and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporations, is not included.
The government controls its finances through a series of fund accounts. The General Revenue Account is the main account for day-to-day departmental expenditure and revenue collection. Four other funds exist mainly to finance capital investment and expenditure and to make loans. They are the Capital Works Reserve Fund, Capital Investment Fund, Loan Fund and Lotteries Fund.
The Capital Works Reserve Fund finances the Public Works Programme, land acquisitions, capital subventions, and major systems and equipment items. On May 27, 1985, when the Sino-British Joint Declaration came into effect, the fund was restructured to enable the premium income obtained from land transactions to be accounted for in accordance with the arrangements in Annex III to the Joint Declaration. The income of the fund is derived mainly from premia and transfers from the General Revenue Account.
The Capital Investment Fund is used to finance the government's capital investments in public bodies which are not part of the government structure itself, such as equity injection in the Mass Transit Railway Corporation and capital investment in the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Its income is derived mainly from interest and dividends on investments, disposal of investments, repayments of loans, and transfers from the General Revenue Account.
The Loan Fund is used to finance schemes of government loans such as student loans and housing loans. Transfers are made from the General Revenue Account to enable the fund to meet its commitments. The other main sources of income are interest and dividends on loans and investments and loan repayments.
The Lotteries Fund is used to finance development of social welfare services through loans and grants. Its income is mainly from a share of the proceeds of Mark Six lotteries.