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"Meanwhile, the Department of Health and the two municipal services departments will closely monitor the recall and investigation processes conducted by the Vitasoy International Holdings Limited.
"The Department of Health has also intensified its sampling of the products and is conducting separate laboratory tests."
End
Alteration of sewage charges is unfair
Commenting on proposals to reduce or cancel sewage charges, a government spokesman said today (Thursday): "It would not be right or fair to alter the present charging scheme which was introduced in April last year after extensive consultation and passage of the enabling legislation by the Legislative Council."
The spokesman said: "The charging scheme was worked out on an equitable principle that polluters should pay for the services of cleaning up the sewage they produce without cross-subsidisation."
To reduce or exempt domestic households from paying sewage charges is unfair because domestic sewage makes up 60 per cent of the waste water being treated at present. Domestic sewage is a cause of water pollution and it needs to be treated before discharge.
A change in the charging scheme in favour of a particular group of users will result in one of the two following consequences:
(1)
(2)
If the cost is passed onto other users not benefiting from the change, it is against the Polluter Pays Principle and result in cross subsidisation,... which is unfair.
If the cost of the change is borne by the Government, it is again unfair and contravenes the Polluter Pays Principle. It will defeat an important objective of the present scheme to encourage people to conserve water, which will lead to reduction in sewage charge and improvement to our serious water pollution problem.