Page 558 of 654
ΤΟ ΟΙ 654
Page 558 of 654
552
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
possibility of revising downward the charges of other venues, so that the living standard would not be affected. As for the details of implementation, it is of course the relevant Select Committees' duty to work them out.
The spirit of our amended motion is that our revenue comes from the allocation of rates payment, which in turn comes from the public. Earlier when we expressed our concern for the rates allocation, the Secretary for the Treasury strongly emphasized that we should carefully examine our spending. In fact our venue hire charges carry an element of subsidization. Of course we appreciate the difficulties the Council is facing. Preliminary calculation shows that freezing of the charges for one year would result in a loss of about $80m and further study of the possibility of rental reduction indicates a larger deficit, which would add to the Council's burden. However, in comparison with the rates income of $18.7b, $80m is only a small sum, but it could alleviate the public's burden of daily livelihood and ease their worries and pressure in this area. Such a psychological effect indeed is more important than anything else.
The Council has been operating on the non-profit principle, with most of charges or even discretionary reduction should not affect our revenue to a very great extent. Naturally we also wish to draw reference from the measures adopted by other organizations, such as the Hong Kong Housing Society, which earlier decided to freeze its charges for one year. This is a virtuous act. As elected members, we should have even more courage in facing the hard times in the coming year, tide over the difficulties with the public, explore various options to effect saving and increase revenue, examine ways to cut down on the expenses of the various departments, remove those unnecessary expenditure items that would not affect our municipal services and improve the efficiency of the various departments of the Council. An example would be the redevelopment of the Victoria Park which was discussed earlier. If an open competition was held, the amount of money involved would be as much as $10m. I believe that as long as we exercise lighter control over the expenditure of the Department and the Council and practise thriftiness, we could definitely cut down on some undue expenses. I strongly believe that if we made use of our various resources flexibly, savings from some unnecessary expenditure items would be secured to make up for the loss arising from freezing of charges.
Mr. Chairman, there were two more amended motions proposed just now. The main reason for our not supporting these motions is that earlier a motion was carried to urge the Central Government to make up for the deficit. There is no need to repeat it. It is neither desirable to examine our proposal for freezing or even reducing our charges on this basis because it is our responsibility to confront the present situation and to be sympathetic with the public by freezing our charges. Our consideration should not be subjected to additional conditions but should be made in the overall context.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I move the amended motion.
Page 558 of 654