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Wednesday, March 13, 1974.
"Clearly, we are now suffering from our tardiness in expanding
our community services in early years, especially in transport," Mr. Szeto said.
Roadworks, he noted, had for years come second in importance to
waterworks and housing and it was not until 1972-73 when its expenditure
was boosted to $113 million.
"This year's original provision of $144 million demonstrates the
government's determination to resolve our transport problems," he said.
Mr. Szeto recalled that roadwork expenditure for 1969-70 was
a mere $42 million. This went up to $50 million in 1970-71 and $68 million in
1971-72.
He emphasized, however, that he was not comparing likes with
likes as "we are caught by escalating costs and have to pay over double
for what we could have achieved in early years",
Turning to the 1974-75 Budget, Mr. Szeto commended the Financial
Secretary for his considerably more realistic proposals than those in
previous years, and in particular for his courage to break away from the
long held policy of budgeting for surplus.
He regretted, however, that the Financial Secretary found it
necessary to balance the deficit by cutting back $205 million in public
works projects and "by resorting to certain fiscal measures even at the
risk of jeopardizing the public's faith in 'open government",
Referring to the 1974-75 estimated capital expenditure, Mr. Szeto
said it had a $294 million or 26 per cent increase for projects in the
Public Works Programme over the current year's revised estimate.
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