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The Immigration Department will revise fees for various services, including the issuing of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passports, visas, permits and identity cards, and the processing of nationality applications.
A government spokesman said today (April 4) that the revised fees would come into effect on June 19 this year.
"In line with the 'user pays' principle, it is government policy that fees should, in general, be set at levels sufficient to recover the full cost of providing the services," the spokesman said.
The fees for the issuing of visas, permits and certain travel documents, and for registration of persons services have been maintained at their existing level for the past eight years. The fees for the issuance of HKSAR passports were last revised in 2000 while those for amending and making endorsement to HKSAR passports as well as those for processing nationality applications have not been revised since July, 1997. A recent costing review showed that most of the fees payable were not adequate to recover the full costs of providing the services.
"To alleviate the impact of the fee increases on users of the services concerned, we will increase 30 fee items by 4% to 21% with a view to achieving full-cost recovery within three to seven years. We will also reduce the fees of seven items by 3% to 30% to reflect the reduced costs of providing the services," the spokesman said.
"The fee increases are moderate and should have little impact on the daily life of the general public," he said.
The Immigration Department regularly reviews the arrangements for handling various types of applications and services with a view to improving cost-effectiveness as well as the quality of services. Active measures are put in place to control the costs of providing the services.
The fee revision will take effect after completing the necessary legislative procedures. A table outlining the existing and revised fees is at Annex.
Ends/Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:01
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