Provisional Legislative Council
Panel on Transport

Miscellaneous Transport-related Fee Increases

Introduction

We have recently reviewed miscellaneous transport-related fees which the Secretary of Transport has the authority to set, subject to the negative vetting procedures laid down in the law. This paper informs Members of the fee increases to be proposed.

Background and Argument

2.It is the government policy that fees should in general be set at levels sufficient to recover the full costs of providing the service. In accordance with this, the Secretary for Transport intends to propose to revise the fees specified in :

1. Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulation;

2. Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulation;

3. Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contravention) Ordinance; and

4. Fixed Penalty (Criminal Proceedings) Ordinance.

3.To meet the public demand for adequate fee levels to deter illegal parking on private roads, we propose to amend the fees specified in Schedule 2 to Road Traffic (Parking on Private Roads) Regulations.

Miscellaneous Cost -recovery Items

4.To achieve full cost recovery, fees are set at a level based on a costing exercises conducted from time to time. For those items for which a recent costing exercise has been carried out, we set the fees at a level to recover costs. In between the period when we undertake a costing exercise we update the fee levels according to the Government Consumption Expenditure Deflator (GCED). This year, the GCED is 7% and we propose to revise the fees accordingly.

Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations(Cap. 374)

5.The proposed fee increases are as follows from levels set in December 1996:

Ordinance/ Regulations	Items	Existing Fees($)	Proposed Fees($)
Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations	(a)Traffic permit	110	118
	(b)Advertisement Permit	110	118

Road Traffic (Public Services Vehicles) Regulations (Cap. 374)

6.The proposed fee increases are as follows from levels set in December 1996:

Ordinance/ Regulations	Items	Existing Fees($)	Proposed Fees($)
Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations	(a) Passenger service licence fee - public bus service, public light bus service and private bus service	396	420
	(b) Any duplicate licence of passenger service licence	125	134
	(c) Passenger service licence certificate fee - public bus, public lights bus and private bus	160	171
	(d) Any duplicate passenger service licence certificate	100	116

7.Most increases are proposed in accordance with the 7% increase as measured by the GCED. The only exception is item (d) above " any duplicate passenger service licence certificate " . A costing exercise on this item showed that for full cost recovery, the fee level should be $126. In order to mitigate the impact of a full cost increase, the increase is being introduced in phases.

Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contravention) Ordinance (Cap. 237) and
Fixed Penalty (Criminal Proceedings) Ordinance (Cap. 240)

8.These amendments aim at increasing the amount of court cost payable by a person who initially disputes liability for a scheduled fixed penalty offence and then subsequently elects not to pursue the matter in court. The proposed increase is as follow:

Ordinance/ Regulations	Items	Existing Fees($)	Proposed Fees($)
Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contravention) Ordinance	Court Costs	440	500
Fixed Penalty (Criminal Proceedings) Ordinance	Court Costs	440	500

9.The last revision of court costs was 1991. A costing exercise was conducted in December 1996, which revealed that, to meet Government's policy of full cost recovery, the Court Costs should be increased from $440 to $500.

Road Traffic (Parking on Private Roads) Regulations (Cap. 374)

10.The fees on impounding, removing and storage of illegal parking on private roads have not been revised since July 1989.

11.The management companies of private roads have long urged the Government to increase these fees to tackle the growing problem of illegal parking there. The existing fees could not reflect their costs on impounding, removing and storage of the vehicles parking illegally on private roads.

12.Moreover, some vehicle drivers may consider that the impounding and removing fees on parking illegally on private roads is cheaper than receiving a fixed penalty ticket which costs $320. This in fact encourages illegal parking on private roads and generate inconvenience to the area. We propose the following fees increase to meet the increase in costs of management company and to combat illegal parking:

Ordinance/ Regulations	Items	Existing Fees($)	Proposed Fees($)
Road Traffic (Parking on Private Roads) Regulations	(a)Impounding a vehicle	140	320
	(b)Removing a vehicle	200	350
	(c)Storing a vehicle (for every day after the first day during which the vehicle is detained)	50	320

Proposal

13.Members are requested to note the fee increases set out above.

Transport Bureau
December 1997