XN000022-1995-11-08 — Page 91

- 61-

Question:

Recently the Government has proposed a diesel-to-petrol scheme to encourage taxi and public light bus operators to switch from diesel to petrol as soon as possible. The cost figures used for designing the conversion scheme for the taxis and public light buses, which were derived from data collected by the Government and information provided by operators, were not based on real-life figures as there are no petrol public light buses and probably only a few, if any, petrol taxis operating in the territory. In view of this, will the Government inform this Council whether it has any contingency plan in the event that the Government's estimated cost figures turn out to be inaccurate, resulting in the livelihood of taxi and public light bus operators being adversely affected during the 5-year conversion period of the scheme?

Reply:

Mr President,

The cost figures used for designing the conversion scheme for taxis and public light buses are based largely on figures for existing vehicles and these costs are well- known to Transport Department and the trade, i.e. costs for purchase, registration and licensing, and for fuel, maintenance and drivers' wages. Only a small proportion of the costs (maintenance costs for petrol taxis and public light buses) are currently unknown, but we have estimated these using overseas information and local data for the hundreds of thousands of petrol private cars already used in Hong Kong. We therefore believe that we have arrived at realistic estimates of these costs. However, if experience shows that our estimates are materially inaccurate, we will be prepared to reconsider our estimates and, if necessary, consider whether any additional changes to the scheme may be necessary to meet the object that the operators are not worse off economically as a result of the switch.

End/Wednesday, November 8, 1995