TRAFFIC congestion should be beaten by higher tunnel fees not by taxing car owners, two top business groups said yesterday.
Government plans to make car ownership more expensive were against free market principles, said the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries.
Instead, people should pay when they use their car. Toll fees on all the tunnels should be raised significantly and there should be a new tax on public and company car parking in congested urban areas, the groups said.
The Chamber of Commerce's director, Ian Christie, said the Government should decide how high the tolls should go, but he said if tolls had kept pace with inflation the cost of crossing the harbour would now be $90.
In peak hours a further premium could be added for cars carrying only one passenger, Mr Christie said, which would encourage car pooling. Cars with only one person should be banned from using the autotoll lanes, he added.
He acknowledged any move to control traffic congestion would be unpopular. 'But we think there will be majority public support for the user pays principle,' he said.
Electronic road pricing was a feasible long-term solution, he said but, in the interim, taxing car ownership was not acceptable. Unless the Government changed its plans it would find it very difficult to get them through the Legislative Council, he said.
