18. Financial Administration

Revenue

The department collected $7 677 million of revenue in 2005-06, representing a decrease of 0.8 per cent against that for 2004-05. The revenue for 2006-07 amounted to $8 396 million, representing an increase of 9.4 per cent against that for 2005-06. A summary of the revenue collected in 2005-06 and 2006-07 is at Appendix 8. For 2005-06, the drop in revenue was mainly attributable to the decrease in duty revenue from tobacco as a result of the decreased quantity in duty paid cigarettes and from hydrocarbon oils due to the surge in pump price. For 2006-07, the increase in revenue was mainly attributable to the increase in duty revenue from tobacco as a result of the increased quantity in duty paid cigarettes brought on by price reduction of most imported brands of cigarettes and from alcoholic beverages due to boosting economic activities.

Expenditure

The total expenditure of the department in 2005-06 amounted to $1 802 million, of which 84.4 per cent was on Personal Emoluments, 14.7 per cent on Departmental Expenses and 0.9 per cent on Capital Account Expenditure, representing a decrease of 2.8 per cent over that for 2004-05. The decrease in expenditure is due to the effect of the civil service pay cut in 2005 and the reduction in operating expenses mainly from the deletion of posts and the changes in cashflow requirements for capital account items.

The total expenditure of the department in 2006-07 amounted to $1 853 million, of which 83.8 per cent was on Personal Emoluments, 16.0 per cent on Departmental Expenses and 0.2 per cent on Capital Account Expenditure, representing an increase of 2.9 per cent over that for 2005-06. The increase in expenditure is due to the creation of new posts and the increase in operating expenses for improved boundary facilities at control points, partly offset by the decrease in cashflow requirements for capital account items.

A summary of the total expenditure in 2005-06 and 2006-07 is at Appendix 9. 

By programme area, the department’s expenditure is distributed as follows :

Seizure Management

The management and disposal of seized goods remained one of the department's major tasks as a result of successful enforcement activities. In 2005-06 and 2006-07, the department has total storage space of about 89 480 sq.m. in government storehouses and about 4 300 cu.m in private godowns each year to accommodate seized goods and vehicles. With the allocation of an additional vehicle detention site in Shatin and the return of vehicle detention site in Kai Tak as a result of the intended site re-development of the latter, the storage area of government storehouses will become 75 360 sq.m. in end 2007.

After the forfeiture, the seized goods are disposed of by auction or destruction. In 2005-06 and 2006-07, the department disposed of about 57 740 and 63 260 items of confiscated goods respectively including cigarettes, optical discs, drugs, fuel oil, computer equipment, vessels and vehicles. Proceeds from the sale of forfeited goods amounting to about $40.9 million had been realized over the two years. On going effort is made to speed up disposal action after the seized goods are confiscated.