Varying food licence fees to be corrected
Differences in licence fees for food premises in the New Territories and urban area - which vary by as much as 100 per cent - will be corrected, but not immediately, the government said yesterday.
Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said this would be done when the current freeze on licensing fees, in force since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, ended.
The discrepancy, which leads to businesses in the New Territories paying 40 to 100 per cent more than those in Kowloon or Hong Kong Island, dates back to the days of the defunct urban and regional councils, which oversaw food premises in different areas. For example, the license fee for a restaurant in urban areas varies from HK$2,520 to HK$125,840 depending on size, while an equivalent outlet in the New Territories pays HK$5,170 to HK$258,870.
Responding in the Legislative Council to a question from lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung, Dr Chow said that when the freeze ended, fees for all food premises, including restaurants, bakeries, food shops and factories would be standardised.
'At this stage, we are thinking of raising the licence fee levels since they have remained unchanged for 10 years. But we don't have any plan to review them now considering the current economic environment.'
In case of a fee increase, he added, urban areas would face a bigger fee rise than the New Territories.
There are 260,000 licence holders for food premises, 60 per cent on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and 40 per cent in the New Territories.
