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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in moving the proposed resolutions under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance (Cap 138) in the Legislative Council today (May 24):
Madam President,
I move that the Pharmacy and Poisons (Fee Revision) Regulation 2006 and the Pharmacists (Disciplinary Procedure) (Fee Reduction) Regulation 2006 as set out under my name in the paper circulated to Members be approved.
Fees relating to registration of pharmaceutical products and licensing of concerned traders and manufacturers are prescribed under Schedule 9 to the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations. Fee relating to verbatim record of proceedings of an inquiry held by the Disciplinary Committee of pharmacists is prescribed under regulation (4)(2) of the Pharmacists (Disciplinary Procedure) Regulations. Most of these fees were last revised in 1994.
It is Government policy that fees should in general be set at levels sufficient to recover the full cost of providing the services. However, most of the fees and charges have been frozen since 1998 as an exceptional measure to alleviate the financial burden on the public in times of economic difficulty. As the economy is gradually picking up, in line with the "user pays" principle, the Financial Secretary in his 2004-05 Budget Speech indicated the need to resume the revision of government fees and charges. Based on the costing reviews, fees will either be increased to achieve full-cost recovery by phases or reduced to reflect the full cost in one go.
A costing exercise was conducted to review the costs of the fee items under the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations and the Pharmacists (Disciplinary Procedure) Regulations. In the light of the outcome, we propose to increase the fees of 12 items and reduce the fees of 5 items.
The Legislative Council Panel on Health Services was consulted in April on the fee revision proposals. Members generally raised no objection to the proposals but has asked the Administration to reconsider the fee increase for three items, namely, application for registration of a pharmaceutical product or substance, annual licence for manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, and registration of premises of an authorised seller of poisons. The existing cost recovery rate of the three items ranges from 7% to 20% of full cost and we proposed an increase with a recovery ranging from 8% to 25%. Members considered that Government should not heavily subsidise private business operators and should seek to recover the full cost in a timely manner.
To address Members concerns, we now propose to increase the fees by a larger magnitude with increases in dollar terms ranging from $500 to $1,340 and to achieve the cost recovery rate ranging between 13% to 41%.
The Amendment Regulations now before Members seek to amend the fees of 17 items specified in the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations and the Pharmacists (Disciplinary Procedure) Regulations.
With these remarks, Madam President, I move the motion.
Ends/Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:14
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