Taxpayers' money could be saved by up to 30 per cent under a new proposal to cash in the leave travel benefits currently enjoyed by senior government officials.
A suggestion has also been made to scrap the compulsory requirement to buy tickets at British Airways and Cathay Pacific.
Leung Chi-chiu, deputy chairman of the Senior Non-expatriate Officers Association, welcomed the proposal.
'It provides more flexibility and increase our choices. It is also less controversial,' he said.
A total of $79 million was spent on leave passages in 1995-96.
Last year, Director of Audit Dominic Chan Yin-tat said in a report that the system was unsatisfactory because it provided the officers with business class travel on the UK route and the allowance was in excess of the officers' entitlement under the Civil Service Regulation.
