Transcript of remarks by SEN

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on electricity charges relief after attending a radio programme this morning (July 7):

Reporter: Mr Wong, some say $3,000 is not enough, is there any room to increase this amount? Also, are you confident that you would get the funding you need before the LegCo’s summer recess?

Secretary for the Environment: We have to understand why we are proposing $3,000 for the five years' electricity charges relief. The intention is to more or less offset the accumulated increase in the tariff for an average family. We calculated that for an average household with a usage of about 275 units (kilowatt hours) per month, the total accumulated tariff increase within five years is less than $3,000. So the intention is to offset that more or less but not to offset the original basic tariff. The idea is not to encourage wastage of electricity. In terms of the timing, we will try our best to promote our proposal. But we understand that for the Government as a whole, we have to consider various initiatives under the Finance Committee (FC)’s agenda items. So we would like to urge the relevant LegCo members to consider all the items under the FC list as a whole.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)