The Government is submitting the Housing (Amendment) Ordinance (No 3) 1997 next month to further empower it to penalise prospective public-housing tenants as well as tenants with 10-year residence who make false declarations concerning their income or (and) assets.
At present, the highest penalty is six months' imprisonment and a fine of $50,000.
The proposed amendment is the imposition of an additional fine of an amount equivalent to three times the rent which tenants are supposed to have paid.
According to the information given by the Housing Bureau, there were 160 cases of tenants in the past six years making false declarations concerning their income or (and) assets in the previous year out of a total of over 660,000 households. There is no evidence that the situation is getting so serious that it makes the amendment indispensable.
On the grounds that more than 90 per cent of the cases were penalised with a fine of $12,000, the Government proposes to impose a fine higher than that stipulated in the Housing Ordinance.
I see no reason to believe that the existing provision is inadequate to cope with the existing situation.
