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Motion debate on Sewage Services (Sewage Charge) Regulation
Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, Mr Canice Mak, in the Legislative Council motion debate on Sewage Services (Sewage Charge) Regulation today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I would like to start with a brief statement on the history of this legislation.
As Members will recall, the Administration has for several years been advising this Council and the community at large of the need to apply the Polluter Pays
- Principle and to introduce this principle to sewage charges.
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Most modern communities pay such charges and the time has now come for Hong Kong to pay them
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Consequently, the Administration held very detailed discussions with Members of the Bills Committee to study the Sewage Services Bill, the enabling Bill for the Sewage Charge Regulation, which was introduced into this Council on 6 July 1994. The outcome of these discussions was agreement on a simpler charging scheme for the majority users of sewage services so as to keep the effect of charges on domestic users as low as reasonably possible. That is to say, after six meetings of the Bills Committee, we agreed with Members to amend the Bill in order to simplify the tariff structure by deleting the fixed charges which would have varied with meter size and user category - and by calculating the sewage charges for all consumers based on a simple uniform volumetric charge only. Subsequently, the Sewage Services Ordinance was passed in this Council on 14 December 1994.
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The revised scheme therefore proposes a uniform rate of $1.2 per cubic metre of water supplied for all service users. This revision further reduced what was already a modest and affordable charge to households. Consequently, the draft Regulation setting out the revised scheme was considered by the Sewage Services Bills Committee at its meeting on 22 November 1994 and was accepted by the majority of the Bills Committee Members. As I have noted, the Ordinance was then duly passed in December last year.
After the passage of the Ordinance, the subsidiary legislation were approved by the Executive Council in February 1995 and tabled in this Council on 1 March 1995. A Sub-committee was formed to consider the charging regulations and, during its four meetings, considered the effect of the Sewage Services (Sewage Charge) Regulation on heavy water users, especially the bleachers and dyers.