The Government has proposed raising the financial assistance scheme subsidy rate for candidates by 10%, from $10 per vote to $11 per vote for the 2008 Legislative Council election, the Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau says.

It also suggested the election expense limits for both geographical constituency and functional constituency elections be raised 5%.

In a paper issued to the Legislative Council today, the bureau says the proposed revision takes into account the inflation since 2004 when the current $10 per vote subsidy was first introduced. As the election expense limits and the subsidy rate are related, the limits will also be adjusted.

With the increase, the election expense limits for the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency will be $2.1 million; Kowloon East and Kowloon West will each be $1.575 million, and $2.625 million each for New Territories East and New Territories West.

For functional constituency elections, the limit is set at $105,000 for Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture & Fisheries, Insurance and Transport functional constituencies; $168,000 for constituencies with 5,000 or fewer registered electors; $336,000 for those with 5,001 to 10,000 registered voters, and $504,000 for those with more than 10,000 registered voters.

The LegCo Constitutional Affairs Panel will discuss the proposals on April 21.