TNAG-2470-FCO40-3594-Budget-of-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 39

of callable capital.

14.

A total of HK$ 25 bn of PADS project expenditures have been approved in the Capital Works Reserve Fund. However the costings for these projects are likely to have come from the original PADS appraisal. HK$ 2.5 bn has already been spent and expenditure of HK$ 7.0 bn is budgetted for 1992/93. The approved projects include Lantau Fixed Crossing (contracts 1 & 2, HK$ 8.9bn) the North Lantau Expressway (HK$ 5.4 bn) and West Kowloon Reclamation $HK 3.3bn. In addition there is provision for HK$ 1.2 bn for land acquisition for PADS related projects. The Western Harbour crossing is a BOT project and so is unlikely to require a government financial commitment. The budgetted expenditures are

shown below.

Budgetted PADS Related Expenditures

Item

Approved

(HK$ bn)

Total

Spent

92/93

93/94 94/95

25.0

2.4

7.0

6. .4

6.8

Projects

Land aquisition

1.4

0.1

1.2

PAA

7.3

1.5

4.8

MTRC Equity

10.0

(not budgetted)

15. On the basis of available information the main risk in PADS financing seems to be the additional equity injection to MTRC and the loss of future dividends foregone. The extent to which capital would be called hinges principally upon MTRC's ability to raise its own finance and the cost of the railway. Furthermore it is not clear how much provision for equity investment in the PAA and MTRC is already accounted for in the MRF after 1992/93. The total equity provisions in the MRF this year are actually somewhat lower than in last years MRF (see below) although the cost of the MTRC programme. is acknowledged to have increased.