*******************************************************
Following is a transcript of remarks (English portion) to the media by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, at the Central Government Offices at Tamar today (December 30):
Reporter: Do you think that CLP was testing the Government's limit with its original plan of a 9.2 per cent tariff increase? How would the Government ensure that the tariff increase in the future is reasonable?
Secretary for the Environment: We have a mechanism to scrutinise the annual tariff adjustment of the two power companies. As we have reported to LegCo and the public, there are two ways of scrutinising the expenditures of the power companies. On the one hand, through the Development Plan we closely examine whether capital expenditures were necessary over a period of five years and through that examination we basically look into whether money should be spent on major projects that might bring the system up to date or into being improved. On the other hand, we have to do an annual exercise of looking into the budget and also the expenditures of the companies. And in this particular year, it has been a tough negotiation as we have identified four areas in which we believe there was room for the power company to relieve the pressure for next year and we have very clearly set out those parameters, and today we have seen CLP making a response on all the four points made by the Government.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, December 30, 2011
Issued at HKT 17:15
NNNN
