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Wednesday, May 10, 1972
FULL MARKET VALUE ASSESSMENT
Wrong In Principle And Practice
The Hon. Wilfred Wong today urged the Government to reconsider,
for economic and social reasons, the present "empirical" formula of
assessing Crown rents.
He said that for the Government to charge what the market
could bear was wrong in principle and practice."
He was speaking at the Legislative Council in support of a
motion by the Hon. Oswald Cheung that the Council would welcome a thorough
review by Government of its policy.
Mr. Wong said: "It might have been tenable in the hey day of
pure laissez-faire for a Carnegie, a Rockefeller to charge what the
traffic can bear. It should not be the case with Government in this day
and age.
He said that inflation must and can be restrained, otherwise
the effect on rents and hence the cost of living would be disastrous
in pricing Hong Kong out of the world market.
He pointed out that the existing formula which contains 5 per cent
compound interest over 75 years increases the original figure of the rent
by four times. The formula which he favoured for Crown rents for leases
renewable for both 75 years and for a shorter term was 1/75th of the value
of the land, without charging any interest at all.
This, he said, would be in the interest of stabilizing the cost
of living and of the present lease-holders.
/Mr. Wong