1995 — Page 399

Urban Council Proceedings 市政局議事錄 All AI Reviewed

Page 599

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

of the PAC, I do appreciate the department's difficulties in setting a timetable for full cost recovery as requested by the Director of Audit. The Department had indicated that it would not be possible to set such a timetable, but it would try its best to move along this direction. However, no target date has been set to achieve such goal. It would be better if the Culture Select Committee would conduct a comprehensive review on this issue in due course. Is it similar to the business of a herbal shop in respect of the hire charges? As a matter of fact, we charge the venue users a venue hire charge of up to 20% of the ticket sales but giving them a little subsidy in URBTIX. If we don't do this, the venue users may shift to other avenues to sell tickets. If we force the venue users to use the URBTIX yet charge them a hire charge at the rate of 20% of their ticket sales, they may find another channel to sell the tickets. I believe a lot of Members would like to follow-up this issue. I hope their follow-up questions can be brief, and refer this item to the Culture Select Committee for discussion. Members who have asked for the floor and have not been heard are Mr. LAI Wing-lin, Mr. CHAN Choi-hi and Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay. Mr. LAI please.

MR. ALBERT LAI Wing-lin (in Cantonese):—I would like to know how the $6 cost of the ticket service is arrived at. Is it that every time you sell a ticket, it will cost you $6? I am not really conversant with this aspect. Could it be that the more tickets you sell, the lower the cost of each ticket will be? For example, if tickets are sold continually from morning till evening and a lot of tickets are sold, the cost of each ticket will become lower. If it is the case, then the popular commercial activities are actually those which bring about good revenue while the others are being subsidised. If all activities are popular ones, perhaps the cost of each ticket will only be $2. Could it be like this?

MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman has just said that it would be more appropriate for the Culture Select Committee to answer this question. Anyhow, I have been assigned to answer these questions today. With regard to Mr. Lai Wing-lin's question which enquired how the $6 cost was arrived at, it of course has a specific formula, and certainly, it includes expenditures such as rental charges as well as staff cost. For details, we can provide you with the calculation method. The second question concerns production quantity and costs. Certainly, they are reversely proportional. The higher the production quantity, the lower will be the cost. When a staff member is employed for selling tickets, the cost of selling one ticket a day is definitely higher than selling ten thousand tickets a day. It is proportional in terms of cost sharing.

MR. CHAN CHOI-HI (in Cantonese):—If my question cannot be answered at this meeting, would Mr. Suen Kai-cheong provide some data information in areas such as financial status, overall operational cost and the number of good-selling programmes and poor-selling programmes after the meeting? Since many of the

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Page 599 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL of the PAC, I do appreciate the department's difficulties in setting a timetable for full cost recovery as requested by the Director of Audit. The Department had indicated that it would not be possible to set such a timetable, but it would try its best to move along this direction. However, no target date has been set to achieve such goal. It would be better if the Culture Select Committee would conduct a comprehensive review on this issue in due course. Is it similar to the business of a herbal shop in respect of the hire charges? As a matter of fact, we charge the venue users a venue hire charge of up to 20% of the ticket sales but giving them a little subsidy in URBTIX. If we don't do this, the venue users may shift to other avenues to sell tickets. If we force the venue users to use the URBTIX yet charge them a hire charge at the rate of 20% of their ticket sales, they may find another channel to sell the tickets. I believe a lot of Members would like to follow-up this issue. I hope their follow-up questions can be brief, and refer this item to the Culture Select Committee for discussion. Members who have asked for the floor and have not been heard are Mr. LAI Wing-lin, Mr. CHAN Choi-hi and Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay. Mr. LAI please. MR. ALBERT LAI Wing-lin (in Cantonese):—I would like to know how the $6 cost of the ticket service is arrived at. Is it that every time you sell a ticket, it will cost you $6? I am not really conversant with this aspect. Could it be that the more tickets you sell, the lower the cost of each ticket will be? For example, if tickets are sold continually from morning till evening and a lot of tickets are sold, the cost of each ticket will become lower. If it is the case, then the popular commercial activities are actually those which bring about good revenue while the others are being subsidised. If all activities are popular ones, perhaps the cost of each ticket will only be $2. Could it be like this? MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman has just said that it would be more appropriate for the Culture Select Committee to answer this question. Anyhow, I have been assigned to answer these questions today. With regard to Mr. Lai Wing-lin's question which enquired how the $6 cost was arrived at, it of course has a specific formula, and certainly, it includes expenditures such as rental charges as well as staff cost. For details, we can provide you with the calculation method. The second question concerns production quantity and costs. Certainly, they are reversely proportional. The higher the production quantity, the lower will be the cost. When a staff member is employed for selling tickets, the cost of selling one ticket a day is definitely higher than selling ten thousand tickets a day. It is proportional in terms of cost sharing. MR. CHAN CHOI-HI (in Cantonese):—If my question cannot be answered at this meeting, would Mr. Suen Kai-cheong provide some data information in areas such as financial status, overall operational cost and the number of good-selling programmes and poor-selling programmes after the meeting? Since many of the Page 399 of 485 Page 599

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Page 599 01 4 age 399 of 485 112 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL of the PAC, I do appreciate the department's difficulties in setting a timetable for full cost recovery as requested by the Director of Audit. The Department had indicated that it would not be possible to set such a timetable, but it would try its best to move along this direction. However, no target date has been set to achieve such goal. It would be better if the Culture Select Committee would. conduct a comprehensive review on this issue in due course. Is it similar to the business of a herbal shop in respect of the hire charges? As a matter of fact, we charge the venue users a venue hire charge of up to 20% of the ticket sales but giving them a little subsidy in URBTIX. If we don't do this, the venue users may shift to other avenues to sell tickets. If we force the venue users to use the URBTIX yet charge them a hire charge at the rate of 20% of their ticket sales, they may find another channel to sell the tickets. I believe a lot of Members would like to follow-up this issue. I hope their follow-up questions can be brief, and refer this item to the Culture Select Committee for discussion. Members who have asked for the floor and have not been heard are Mr. LAI Wing-lin, Mr. CHAN Choi-hi and Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay. Mr. LAI please. MR. ALBERT Lai Wing-lin (in Cantonese):—I would like 10 know how the S6 cost of the ticket service is arrived at. Is it that everytime you sell a ticket, it will cost you $6? I am not really conversant with this aspect. Could it be that the more tickets you sell, the lower the cost of each ticket will be? For example, if tickets are sold continually from morning till evening and a lot of tickets are sold, the cost of each ticket will become lower. If it is the case, then the popular commercial activities are actually those which bring about good revenue while the others are being subsidised. If all activities are popular ones, perhaps the cost of each ticket will only be $2. Could it be like this? MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman has just said that it would be more appropriate for the Culture Select Committee to answer this question. Anyhow, I have assigned to answer these questions today. With regard to Mr. Lai Hok-lim's question which enquired how the $6 cost was arrived at, it of course has a specific formula, and certainly, it includes expenditures such as rental charges as well as staff cost. For details, we can provide you with the calculation method. The second question concerns production quantity and costs. Certainly, they are reversely proportional. The higher the production quantity, the lower will be the cost. When a staff member is employed for selling tickets, the cost of selling one ticket a day is definitely higher than selling ten thousand tickets a day. It is proportional in terms of cost sharing. MR. CHAN CHOI-HI (in Cantonese):—If my question cannot be answered at this meeting, would Mr. Suen Kai-cheong provide some data information in areas such as financial status, overall operational cost and the number of good-selling programmes and poor-selling programmes after the meeting? Since many of the Page 399 of 485

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112

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of the PAC, I do appreciate the department's difficulties in setting a timetable for full cost recovery as requested by the Director of Audit. The Department had indicated that it would not be possible to set such a timetable, but it would try its best to move along this direction. However, no target date has been set to achieve such goal. It would be better if the Culture Select Committee would. conduct a comprehensive review on this issue in due course. Is it similar to the business of a herbal shop in respect of the hire charges? As a matter of fact, we charge the venue users a venue hire charge of up to 20% of the ticket sales but giving them a little subsidy in URBTIX. If we don't do this, the venue users may shift to other avenues to sell tickets. If we force the venue users to use the URBTIX yet charge them a hire charge at the rate of 20% of their ticket sales, they may find another channel to sell the tickets. I believe a lot of Members would like to follow-up this issue. I hope their follow-up questions can be brief, and refer this item to the Culture Select Committee for discussion. Members who have asked for the floor and have not been heard are Mr. LAI Wing-lin, Mr. CHAN Choi-hi and Ms. Ada WONG Ying-kay. Mr. LAI please.

MR. ALBERT Lai Wing-lin (in Cantonese):—I would like 10 know how the S6 cost of the ticket service is arrived at. Is it that everytime you sell a ticket, it will cost you $6? I am not really conversant with this aspect. Could it be that the more tickets you sell, the lower the cost of each ticket will be? For example, if tickets are sold continually from morning till evening and a lot of tickets are sold, the cost of each ticket will become lower. If it is the case, then the popular commercial activities are actually those which bring about good revenue while the others are being subsidised. If all activities are popular ones, perhaps the cost of each ticket will only be $2. Could it be like this?

MR. SUEN KAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman has just said that it would be more appropriate for the Culture Select Committee to answer this question. Anyhow, I have assigned to answer these questions today. With regard to Mr. Lai Hok-lim's question which enquired how the $6 cost was arrived at, it of course has a specific formula, and certainly, it includes expenditures such as rental charges as well as staff cost. For details, we can provide you with the calculation method. The second question concerns production quantity and costs. Certainly, they are reversely proportional. The higher the production quantity, the lower will be the cost. When a staff member is employed for selling tickets, the cost of selling one ticket a day is definitely higher than selling ten thousand tickets a day. It is proportional in terms of cost sharing.

1995 — Page 399

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