Replies to Questions from Finance Committee Members

Examination of Estimates of Expenditure 2003-04 Reply Serial No.
CONTROLLING OFFICER’S REPLY TO
INITIAL WRITTEN QUESTION
ETWB(E)051
Question Serial
No.
Head : 44 Environmental Protection Department Subhead(No. & title): 0374
Programme : (2) Air
Controlling Officer : Director of Environmental Protection
Director of Bureau : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
Question : Provision for 2003-04 is HK$233.4 million (63.6%) higher than the revised estimate for
2002-03 which is mainly due to increased requirement for one-off grants to assist owners
of pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles to retrofit their vehicles with particulate removal devices
and to encourage diesel public light bus owners to replace their vehicles early with ones
that run on LPG or electricity. But, there is still a large amount of balance for these 2
items under the subhead 700-568 and 700-570 of the capital account. What is the reason
for the dramatic increase of resource?
Asked by : Hon. YOUNG, Howard
Reply : Both subhead 700-568 (i.e. the particulate removal device installation programme) and
700-570 (i.e. the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electric light bus programme) are new
programmes started in 2002-03. They are still at their early implementation stages with a
very small number of the eligible vehicles having received the one-off grants. The
expenditures of the two programmes in 2002-03 are thus small and a large balance remains at
the end of the fiscal year.
Gototop
The increase of the provision of $233.4 million in 2003-04 over the revised estimate for
2002-03 is mainly due to an additional expenditure of $314.5 million expected for the above
two capital account items in 2003-04 (as analysed in the following paragraphs), partly offset
by the reduced requirement of $84.2 million for the one-off grant for the LPG taxi programme
under subhead 700-554. The requirement for the LPG taxi grant in 2003-04 is expected to
be smaller because most of the diesel taxis have already been replaced by LPG taxis. There
are thus fewer recipients for the grant in 2003-04.
For subhead 700-568, we expect that about 29,000 additional eligible vehicles will receive the
grant for the installation in 2003-04 as compared to 2002-03. Thus, the provision for the
one-off grant payment will have to be increased by $261.2 million over the revised estimated
expenditure for 2002-03.
For subhead 700-570, about 900 additional diesel light buses are expected to be replaced
under the programme in 2003-04 as compared to 2002-03. The provision for the payment of
the grant has thus to be increased by $53.3 million over the one for 2002-03.
Signature
Name in block letters ROBERT J. S. LAW
Post Title Director of Environmental Protection
Date 20 March 2003