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To provide the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board (PCFB) with sufficient funds to tide over its immediate cashflow problems and to finance the proposed improvements in the short term, the Government, subject to the approval of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, will provide an interest-bearing bridging loan of $80 million to the Board.
To meet the long-term commitments arising from the proposed improvements, the levy rate on the building and construction industry and the quarrying industry will be raised from 0.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent through a resolution to the Legislative Council.
A spokesman for the Education and Manpower Branch pointed out that under the Bill, all eligible pneumoconiotics would receive a monthly payment of $2,100 for pain, suffering and loss of amenities (PSLA) irrespective of their degree of incapacity.
The proposal will also enable more than half of the pneumoconiotics who opted for the present scheme after 1993 but could not receive any part of the PSLA payment because they have not been assessed to be suffering from additional degree of incapacity, to receive compensation for PSLA.
Other proposed improvement measures under the Bill are:
* The Pneumoconiosis Medical Board (PMB) will be empowered to adjust a pneumoconiotic's degree of lung function loss as measured by the specified FVC(Forced Vital Capacity) test by up to 5 per cent so as to take into account the varying physical conditions of pneumoconiotics taking the test.
If a pneumoconiotic cannot perform the FVC test at all due to certain co- existing medical conditions such as stroke and tracheotomy, PMB will have the power to assess the degree of the pneumoconiotic's loss of lung function on the basis of other relevant clinical tests, or physical or radiological findings.
* PCFB will reimburse medical expenses to those who have paid such expenses on behalf of a deceased pneumoconiotic regardless whether the deceased pneumoconiotic had made the claims before the death. This new measure will replace the existing arrangement of making all such payments to the family members of the deceased pneumoconiotic even if they are not the one who paid for those expenses; and
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