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Following is a question by the Hon Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung and an oral reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (May 10):
Question:
Applications for registration marks under the Personalised Vehicle Registration Marks Scheme introduced by the Government were closed on May 2 this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of applications received and, among them, the number of applications which did not meet the requirements and the reasons for that;
(b) among the applications received, of the number of those whose combinations of marks include the names of persons or companies and the details of such combinations; and
(c) whether the number of applications to reserve unassigned vehicle registration marks ("UVRMs") has reduced after the introduction of the above Scheme; and whether the Scheme has affected the revenue from the existing auctions of vehicle registration marks ("VRMs"), together with the respective numbers of applications for UVRMs and amounts of revenue from auctions of VRMs in the first four months of this year and in the same period last year?
Reply:
Madam President,
(1) The first round of applications for the Personalised Vehicle Registration Marks (PVRM) Scheme was closed on May 2. We have received over 1,500 applications. Transport Department will arrange selection of 1,000 applications by lot later this month. Selected applications will then be examined to see whether the basic combination requirements have been met. At this juncture, we are unable to provide detailed information on applications that fail to comply with the requirements. So far, the Transport Department preliminarily found that about 50 applications failed to meet the basic combination requirements. The main reason is those PVRMs applied duplicate existing vehicle registration marks.
(2) Applications of first round are being processed, and applications have not yet been categorised. Information on the number of PVRM combinations consisting of personal names and company names would therefore only be available at a later stage. However, the Transport Department's initial observation revealed that the majority of the applications were submitted on an individual basis, amongst these applications, some applicants used their surnames or names in their PVRMs.
(3) Persons interested in the existing ordinary and special vehicle registration marks may make an application to Transport Department at any time for reservation of a vehicle registration mark for auction. Therefore, the number of such applications varies from several dozens to over a hundred a week. For instance, the weekly average number of applications received by Transport Department for the first 4 months in 2005 was 87, whereas that from January to April 2006 was 77, both were at similar levels.
Regarding the proceeds from auctions, they vary from auction to auction, depending on the popularity of the ordinary and special vehicle registration marks put up for auction. For instance, for January to April 2005, the proceeds varied from $2.59 million to $13.49 million per auction, with gross proceeds of $31.975 million. The gross proceeds for the first 4 months of 2006 were $21.535 million.
The above figures include proceeds from Lunar New Year auctions which could be fluctuating greatly. For example, the auction proceeds in 1990 are only $0.9 million, whereas the auction proceeds for 2005 and 2006 were $13.49 million and $4.93 million respectively. If Lunar New Year auctions are excluded, the gross proceeds from auctions for the first 4 months of 2005 and 2006 are $18.488 million and $16.61 million respectively.
Besides, the Administration has undertaken to set aside an amount equivalent to the estimated net proceeds from the sale of PVRMs in the next five years to fund poverty alleviation initiatives.
Thank you Madam President.
Ends/Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:26
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