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Following is a question by the Hon Lee Wing-tat and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (December 21) :
Question :
Regarding the crackdown on touting activities of taxi operators/drivers through the offer of fare discounts, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of prosecutions instituted by the Police against those engaged in touting activities, and by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority against those who used illegal telecommunication devices for touting and, among such cases, the numbers of convictions in each year since January 2004;
(b) whether it has assessed the effectiveness of such enforcement actions; if it has, of the outcome of the assessment; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether it has discussed with various taxi associations the possibility of adjusting downward the scale of taxi fares prescribed by the law, in order to eliminate such touting activities; if it has, of the details of the discussions; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply :
Madam President,
Details of the enforcement actions taken by the Police against illegal soliciting of taxi passengers between January 2004 and November 2005 are attached in Annex I.
Joint operations conducted over the same period by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) and the Police against the use of illegal telecommunication equipment are attached in Annex II.
The Transport Department (TD) published the enforcement figures to the taxi trade through the quarterly Taxi Newsletter to keep the trade informed of the latest actions taken by the Government against taxi soliciting activities. The trade supports the continued enforcement actions and recognises the deterrent effects the sustained enforcement actions have on taxi soliciting activities. TD will continue to work closely with the Police, the OFTA and the taxi trade to monitor and curb illegal soliciting activities.
TD has all along maintained dialogue with the trade on issues related to taxi operation. So far the trade has neither submitted any proposal to reduce taxi fares nor reached any consensus on this matter.
Ends/Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:50
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