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Wednesday, May 10, 1972
MOTION ON EXISTING CROWN RENT POLICY
By Hon. Oswald Cheung
The Hon. Oswald Cheung said today no one inside or outside the
Government could say, at present with any facility, what a moderate or
reasonable Crown rent was for any particular property.
The reason was, he pointed out, that the Government had failed
to revise Crown rents at moderate rates continuously, in the way that rates
had been constantly revalued and revised.
He was speaking in the Legislative Council while moving a motion
that "in view of the public concern and objections to the present policy
of assessing Crown rents on renewable Crown leases, this Council would
welcome a thorough review by Government of its policy."
He said: "Had Government done with Crown rents what they had
done with rates, it would have been possible to say at any given time
what auch reasonable Crown rent would be with reasonable accuracy.'
It would have been preferable for Government to have maintained
a continuous reappraisal, he added.
"Sometime after 1910 when the Crown decided to auction a particular
lot, it did not carry out the process of assessing what a proper moderate
Crown rent of it should be", he pointed out.
Now the Government, in order to work out what a fair reassessed
Crown rent should be, has to start working backwards. It starts with what
the market value of the land is on the basis that the Crown lessee pays a
nominal rent.
The Government ......
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