The Environmental Protection Department proposes revising 24 existing fees and charges under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance, Noise Control Ordinance, Water Pollution Control Ordinance and Dumping at Sea Ordinance, including reducing 60% of them.

The revisions aim to meet the goal of achieving full-cost recovery for providing the services.

The relevant Amendment Regulations were published in the Government Gazette today and will be tabled in the Legislative Council on Wednesday. The new rates are slated to come into effect on January 1.

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Most of the fees and charges were last revised in 2000. A costing review at 2004-2005 prices shows that efficiency gains over the last few years make some services less expensive, so more than half of the existing fee items are higher than necessary for cost recovery. The rest fall short and will be increased in phases over the next few years to avoid a sudden one-off increase.

The department has proposed increasing the specific processes licence fees under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance by 10%. It would also cut the fees for a certified copy of an entry in the register of specific process licences by 8% and for an open burning permit by 40%.

It also proposes cutting the Water Pollution Control (General) Regulations fees by 8% to 24% and boosting the licence fees for discharge from industrial, institutional or commercial premises of domestic sewage only, and the fees for new licence or variation or renewal of licence for discharge from domestic premises, by 14%.

The fees under the Noise Control Ordinance are to be increased by 10% to 20%, those under the Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance reduced by about 9% to 13%, and under the Dumping at Sea Ordinance cut by about 8%.