1975 — Page 35

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MRS. ELLIOTT (in English):-Mr. Chairman, our Clerks and Librarians are trained to know what they should do. But if Mr. CHAN has any complaints or has heard any complaints, I'll be very glad to investigate.

(2) MR. JOHN MACKENZIE asked the following question (in English):-

How many licensed and unlicensed hawkers are now operating in the urban areas? What is the estimate of overall Council expenditure in 1975/76 on account of hawkers, including costs of General Duty Teams, Hawker Control Force and Hawker Liaison Staff and the provision of Hawker Bazaars and other services?

What is the current cost of hawker licences and how much revenue is expected from this source in the current year? Is there not a strong case for substantial increases in hawker licences?

MR. HENRY H. L. HU, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKERS SELECT COM- MITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-

Mr. Chairman, in the urban areas as at 30.4.75, there were 31,456 licensed hawkers. There are no reliable statistics on the number of unlicensed hawkers, but the number is probably in the region of 40,000.

Estimated expenditure on hawker in the current financial year

is as follows:-

Hawker Control Force

General Duty Teams

Maintenance of meters

Minor works in Hawker Bazaars

Stores and Equipment

Other Staff costs

Overheads

Total

$ 5,959,077 9,613,954 40,000

750,000 70,000 3,168,733

628,762

$20,230,526

These figures include transport costs, oncosts, uniforms and various allowances.

In the current year, approved capital works for hawker bazaars are expected to cost $2,790,200. Hawker licences fees and pitch fees are laid down in Part I and Part III of the First

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

39

Schedule to the Hawker By-laws and are appended to this reply for tabling. In 1975/76, the expected income from hawker licences is $4,000,000.

There may indeed be a case for increasing fees for various hawker licences and this is currently under review by the Hawkers Select Committee. I think however that it must be borne in mind that at the present time the real income of most people is not rising and this must be taken into account in any decision affecting fees.

Mr. Chairman, I now lay on the table the present licence fees Annex IV

for various kinds of hawkers.

MR. MACKENZIE (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I have two supple- mentaries on expenditure. Firstly, the capital expenditure of $2.8M for the current year. Does Mr. Hu, Chairman of the Hawkers Select Com- mittee, have any information regarding the total recent capital expendi- ture and projected capital expenditure, on account of hawker services?

MR. HU (in English):-Mr. Chairman, the following is a brief situa- tion of the hawker expenditure concerning capital expenditure:-

(a) In the long term, that means to say for ten years, hawker bazaars to be constructed ending 1984 are estimated at $15,330,000.

(b) The hawker bazaar projects must also be related to the markets construction programme as markets will be taking in many hawkers. The estimated capital expenditure on markets in the ten-year programme ending 1984 is $108,000,000. Many of the items included in both the hawker bazaars and markets construction programme are switch-financed items. In other words, they are a Government commitment for which the Council will be reimbursed eventually. $1,860,000 is for the bazaars and $4,700,000 is for markets. That is the present situation on capital expenditure.

MR. MACKENZIE (in English):-Mr. Chairman, about the "Ex- penditure" question, is it not correct that the increase in General Duties Teams which are now being envisaged and discussed within the Council will increase recurrent expenditure under that heading from $9.6M to a figure approaching $14M and, thereby, increasing anticipated per annum expenditure to $24M?

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