TNAG-1724-FCO40-2437-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 357

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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON CHEUNG YAN LUNG, OBE, SBSEJ, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 20 JANUARY 1988

MR. CHEUNG:

Sir,

New Territories Leases (Extension) Bill 1987

The Bill is generally acceptable to the New Territories community for it gives legislative effect to paragraph 2 of Annex III to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provides that all leases in the New Territories, with the exception of a few,

few, will be extended automatically, after they expire in 1997, for 50 years without additional premium: instead, an annual rent equivalent 3% of the rateable value of the property will be charged after 1997.

to

Also, as provided in Annex III to the Joint Declaration, the Bill stipulates that there will be rent concession for certain categories of land held by indigenous villagers. These are old schedule lots, village lots, small houses and similar rural holdings held on 30 June 1984, or small houses granted after that date. Rent for such property shall remain unchanged after 1997.

In scrutinizing the Bill, we came to be aware that a considerable number of property in the New Territories held by t'sos and t'ongs should, in the spirit of the Joint Declaration, be eligible for rent concession after 1997, but which did not seem

to come under the letters of the Bill. T'sos and t'ongs are ancient Chinese institutions of ancestral land-holding, and the land or the income derived from it is enjoyed by all the members. Many t'sos and t'ongs are composed entirely of indigenous villagers, and many of their

property fall under the various categories of land which are eligible for rent concession after

1997.

(I)

We have carefully examined the case for t'sos and t'ongs

and we are glad that, after lengthy discussions, the Administration # agreed

agreed that the Bill

Bill should

should be amended. I, therefore, shall move an amendment at the Committee Stage stating