A LOOPHOLE in new taxi licence rules means individual speculators could acquire hundreds of licences, the Government admitted yesterday.
This week licences for 300 urban red taxis and 100 New Territories green taxis will be formally issued under new rules designed to clamp down on speculators.
One of the conditions is that each tenderer can only put in a bid for one licence. But the rules do not stop individuals from making multiple applications so long as each application is made through a different company.
The Transport Department said the situation was under review.
'At the moment there is no rule to prohibit such business activities. We will review the whole operation with a detailed investigation of the background of the companies to see whether they are under the control of one person,' said a department spokesman.
'Whether we are going to prohibit that or leave it alone would be part of the review.' Ernest Hung Hing-cheung, a senior executive officer with the department's licensing division, said: 'It is very difficult to say whether we have any power to block this loophole because Hong Kong is a free society.' Mr Hung said that in the present round of licences only two cases had been found where people entered multiple applications, and both had failed to gain a licence. But there had been no check on the ownership of the companies involved, he said.
Mr Hung said the department received 2,850 bids for the urban licences with the winners putting in the highest bids. A public lottery had to be held yesterday for the final nine places because 11 identical bids were received offering $1.719 million.
