Letters | ‘User pays’ in Hong Kong. Why don’t taxis, to use the Discovery Bay Tunnel?
- Readers discuss lost revenue from waived tunnel tolls, the Ram Temple inauguration, and the right to self-defence
Taxis have been allowed to use the Discovery Bay Tunnel since October 2014. They have never had to pay to use this tunnel, whereas the minimum usage fee for other permitted vehicles (including government vehicles, ambulances and police vehicles) is HK$50 (US$6.40).
According to published government statistics, around 1.15 million taxis used the tunnel to access Discovery Bay in the 70 months ended October 2023. During the same period, around 554,000 buses used the tunnel and would have paid about HK$27 million in tolls.
Because taxis pay no tolls, it means about HK$57 million in tunnel fees was foregone during this period. Revenue had also been foregone between October 2014 and 2018. In almost 10 years, the government should otherwise have collected a large sum in royalties on these fees.
Whatever the original justification was for waiving the Discovery Bay Tunnel fee for taxis, a review of it is long overdue. Under the “user pays” principle endorsed by the government, taxi users who fail to pay their way are subsidised by the Hong Kong taxpayer. This is unfair. They also add to noise, congestion and pollution in Discovery Bay.