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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority will pass on the rates concession of about $1.145 billion to its domestic tenants over a 12-month period starting from next month (April).
The Financial Secretary proposed in his Budget last month to waive the rates for 2008-09, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per quarter for each rateable tenement. Subsequently, the Chief Executive in Council granted the rates concession for the whole fiscal year by gazette.
The Subsidised Housing Committee of the Housing Authority today (March 17) endorsed that the rates concession would be passed on to all domestic tenants, including Interim Housing (IH) licensees. Premises for which mesne profit is collected will be excluded as the tenancies concerned are deemed already terminated.
The rates concession will be passed on to tenants/licensees from April 2008 to March 2009 by offsetting an equivalent amount of rent/licence fee each month. For tenancies that do not cover the entire month, rates concession will be made on a pro-rata basis.
A spokesperson for the authority said, "Public Rental Housing (PRH) tenants are only required to pay rents to the authority. They do not have to pay rates separately. Although not legally obliged to do so, we have all along passed on the benefits received to tenants in all previous rates concession exercises."
For tenants who are receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, the Social Welfare Department will make corresponding adjustment to their rent allowance payable as previous arrangements.
The rates of PRH are assessed by the Commissioner of Rating and Valuation by block or floor. The amount of rates will therefore be apportioned to individual flats.
PRH tenants/IH licensees will be informed of the arrangements by letter. Notices will also be posted at each domestic block to indicate the amount of rates concession to be offset for different flat types.
Ends/Monday, March 17, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:00
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