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Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (December 20):
Question:
Regarding "Subhead 080 ─ Transfers from Funds" under "Head 9 ─ Loans, Reimbursements, Contributions and Other Receipts" of the General Revenue Account, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of a breakdown, by the names of the funds concerned, on the annual estimate for the subhead since 1997-1998;
(b) of the criteria adopted for determining the annual estimate for the subhead; and
(c) of the criteria adopted for determining the amounts to be transferred from various funds to the subhead; whether deviation from such criteria has ever occurred since 1997-1998; if so, of the details.
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The annual estimates for "Subhead 080 - Transfers from Funds" under "Head 9 - Loans, Reimbursements, Contributions and Other Receipts" of the General Revenue Account (GRA) for the years from 1997-98 to 2006-07 are shown in the table below -
Transfers from
Financial Funds to GRA Revenue Estimates
Year Head 9 Subhead 080 (HK$M)
--------- ----------------------- -----------
1997-98 - -
1998-99 Capital Works Reserve Fund 35,000
1999-00 - -
2000-01 Capital Works Reserve Fund 10,000
2001-02 - -
2002-03 Loan Fund 3,000
2003-04 Land Fund 120,000
Loan Fund 13,700
--------
133,700
========
2004-05 Land Fund 40,000
Loan Fund 6,500
Capital Investment Fund 6,000
-------
52,500
========
2005-06 Loan Fund 5,500
2006-07 Loan Fund 4,700
Capital Investment Fund 2,200
-------
6,900
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(b) The Government provides funding to finance government services and investments through the GRA and eight purpose-specific Funds (e.g. the Capital Works Reserve Fund and the Loan Fund). The GRA is the Government's main account and serves as the central funding device with funding transferred as necessary to and from the eight Funds. Such transfers are solely for cash flow management of the government accounts and are not counted as part of the government revenue or expenditure.
In preparing the annual Budget, the Government will project the cash flow of each of these Funds on the basis of its estimated expenditure and revenue, and estimate the amount to be transferred from these Funds to Revenue Head 9 Subhead 080 of the GRA.
(c) The actual amount to be transferred from the Funds each year is determined by the actual expenditure, revenue and the timing of the cash flow. This has been a long established practice. No deviation has ever occurred since 1997-98.
Ends/Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:31
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