the year, but it is still necessary to limit the electric loading in domestic rooms to normal domestic appliances. To increase the loading to cover heavy electrical appliances, such as air-conditioners, would require the installation of new main cables and a consequential increase in rent.
109. In order to improve and expedite repairs to electrical break- downs, two emergency standby teams were introduced to attend to breakdown calls from estates after office hours until 11.00 p.m. During the year, this section has installed general and compound lighting in the Yan Oi Transit Camp, reconditioned the public lighting in 15 Mark I and Mark II blocks, and modified the public lighting system in all Mark III, IV and Mark V blocks in Tsz Wan Shan Estate to provide partial day lighting in central corridors.
110. An Engineering Assistant Class I was seconded from the Architectural Office, Public Works Department, to assist in technical matters. 297 major and 989 minor repairs or improvement jobs were carried out by the section during the year, at a cost of $446,155.
CHAPTER 9
FINANCE
111. Settlers in cottage areas pay quarterly permit fees for the sites they occupy. The amount is laid down in the Resettlement Regulations, and varies according to the size of the site and the location of the area; for a typical site of 160 square feet the permit fee is $5 a quarter in outlying areas and $15 a quarter in the more central areas. If the permittee does not own the premises he is living in he also pays rent either to the Government or to a welfare agency. Rents for Government- owned cottages are $10 or $15 a month according to location.
112. The Government's policy in fixing rents in domestic estates is to recover the original capital cost (including an assumed figure of $14 per square foot for land including site formation, piling and engineering cost, but excluding land to be occupied by schools, playgrounds, roads etc.), amortized over 40 years at a rate of 34% compound interest a year, plus all annually recurrent expenditure, including the cost of administration and maintenance. Rents are worked out in respect of a particular Mark of block, on the basis of contract prices for the earliest ones to be constructed, and apply to all blocks of that Mark irrespective of location and date of construction. They are liable to revision from
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