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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority (HA) will pass on the rates concession for 2012/13 set out in the Budget delivered by the Financial Secretary in February to its domestic and non-domestic tenants starting from April, as approved by its Subsidised Housing Committee and Commercial Properties Committee.
"For domestic tenants, the apportioned amount of concession will be transferred to the tenants on a monthly basis from April 2012 to March 2013 by offsetting an equivalent amount in the rent payable by the tenants," a spokesman for the HA said today (March 16).
For tenancies that do not cover the whole month, the transfer of the rates concession will be made on a pro-rata basis.
"The transfer arrangement will also apply to Interim Housing licensees paying licence fees," the spokesman said, adding that all sitting tenants and licensees will be individually informed of the arrangement.
"Similarly, the rates concession will also be passed on to non-domestic tenants/licensees on a 'no-loss, no-gain' principle. They are exempted from paying the monthly rates from April 2012 to March 2013, for exclusive and inclusive lettings alike, subject to the capping limit of $2,500 per quarter for each rateable tenement. Letters will be sent to non-domestic tenants/licensees notifying them of the concession amount," the spokesman said.
For the three single-operator markets of the HA in Kwai Chung, Lei Muk Shue and Tin Yan, the operators have agreed to pass on the rates concession to their licensees in full.
"Given the small amount of rates concession to individual carpark users and the significant administrative cost involved for its distribution, the Commercial Properties Committee of the HA endorsed the exclusion of carparks from the exercise in line with all the previous rebate exercises," the spokesman said.
The total amounts of rates concessions to be passed on to domestic and non-domestic tenants/licensees are estimated to be about $1,600 million and $37.5 million respectively.
Ends/Friday, March 16, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:30
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