HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
He said (in Cantonese):-In face of the present economic situation, everyone has to tighten one's belt in order to live through the hard times. Freezing increases in the Council's charges is indeed one of the ways to help the people out, but while the charges are maintained at the current levels, the Council should be more proactive in developing new sources of funding, or else it would be beyond our means to shoulder our financial burden.
Time and again, the subject of seeking supplementary provision from the Central Government has been discussed at the meetings of the Standing Committee. This view is now included in the amended motion. We must stress that if the bid for supplementary provision was not followed up at the same time, we would in reality be facing a very serious financial problem. Behind the proposal to freeze charges, the Urban Council is in fact as poor as a church mouse. Two to three more years later, our fiscal reserves would be exhausted. Next year we would only have 11 weeks' reserves for rainy days. If we did not develop other sources of income, how could we manage to reduce and freeze our charges indefinitely? Hence, the Democratic Party considers that the original motion needs expansion. We must present clearly to the Central Government our case for additional provision in order to maintain our services.
As for the further amendments moved by Mr. Tam Kwok-kiu of the ADPL, similar discussions were already held at the last meeting of the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee when a motion was proposed on the request for rental reduction from the stall lessees of the Pei Ho Street Market. Unfortunately, members of the ADPL still had not shown up when the discussion was concluded. It was probable that not being aware of the conclusions of the Select Committee, they requested the Department to prepare a paper on the present financial situation to facilitate consideration of the proposal to reduce the rentals of all the markets. As this topic is being followed up by the Select Committee, we consider the amended motion basically a superfluous one.
And then we received this morning further amendments to the motion made by Ms. Jennifer Chow, requesting that reduction of the hire charges and rentals of the Council venues be further examined. It is obvious that given the existing financial status, such a proposal would simply render the Council bankrupt. I hope that Ms. Chow will be more sensible and take a look at our present financial situation. The charges included in her proposal cover the hire charges of all the venues such as the recreational and cultural ones, museums etc as well as the admission fees. All along we have been against heavy subsidization of hire charges but at the same time, we have been opposed to substantial increase in admission fees lest it would bring pressure to the entrants. At present the average level of subsidization of admission fees and venue hire charges is on average as high as 71% to 87%. This is already the highest level of subsidization next to free admission. Let me cite a simple example. The hire charge of a pitch for a half-hour football game is only $168,
Page 552 of 654
Page 552 of 654
t
Page 552 of 654
Page 552 of 654
ɔz of 654
546
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
He said (in Cantonese):-In face of the present economic situation, everyone has to tighten one's belt in order to live through the hard times. Freezing increases in the Council's charges is indeed one of the ways to help the people out, but while the charges are maintained at the current levels, the Council should be more proactive in developing new sources of funding, or else it would be beyond our means to shoulder our financial burden.
Time and again, the subject of seeking supplementary provision from the Central Government has been discussed at the meetings of the Standing Committee. This view is now included in the amended motion. We must stress that if the bid for supplementary provision was not followed up at the same time, we would in reality be facing a very serious financial problem. Behind the proposal to freeze charges, the Urban Council is in fact as poor as a church mouse. Two to three more years later, our fiscal reserves would be exhausted. Next year we would only have 11 weeks' reserves for rainy days. If we did not develop other sources of income, how could we manage to reduce and freeze our charges indefinitely? Hence, the Democratic Party considers that the original motion needs expansion. We must present clearly to the Central Government our case for additional provision in order to maintain our
services.
As for the further amendments moved by Mr. Tam Kwok-kiu of the ADPL, similar discussions were already held at the last meeting of the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee when a motion was proposed on the request for rental reduction from the stall lessees of the Pei Ho Street Market. Unfortunately, members of the ADPL still had not shown up when the discussion was concluded. It was probable that not being aware of the conclusions of the Select Committee, they requested the Department to prepare a paper on the present financial situation to facilitate consideration of the proposal to reduce the rentals of all the markets. As this topic is being followed up by the Select Committee, we consider the amended motion. basically a superfluous one.
And then we received this morning further amendments to the motion made by Ms. Jennifer CHOW, requesting that reduction of the hire charges and rentals of the Council venues be further examined. It is obvious that given the existing financial status, such a proposal would simply render the Council bankrupt. I hope that Ms. Cнow will be more sensible and take a look at our present financial situation. The charges included in her proposal cover the hire charges of all the venues such as the recreational and cultural ones, museums etc as well as the admission fees. All along we have been against heavy subsidization of hire charges but at the same time, we have been opposed to substantial increase in admission fees lest it would bring pressure to the entrants. At present the average level of subsidization of admission fees and venue hire charges is on average as high as 71% to 87%. This is already the highest level of subsidization next to free admission. Let me cite a simple example. The hire charge of a pitch for a half-hour football game is only $168,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.