Government Revises Excavation Fees and Costs, Effective July 1, 2025

Fees for excavations in unleased land under Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations to be revised

​The Government published in the Gazette today (May 2) the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulation 2025 to revise the eight types of fees and three sets of economic costs payable as specified under the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Cap 28A).

The revision cover the following categories:

(a) fees payable in respect of processing the applications for excavations and issuing excavation permits (XP) by the Government in relation to excavations in unleased land covering the extent in streets maintained by the Highways Department (HyD) and unleased land other than streets maintained by the HyD; and

(b) economic costs charged for the whole duration of the extended period of excavations in a street maintained by the HyD.

A spokesman for the Development Bureau said, "In line with the 'user pays' principle, it is the Government's policy that fees charged by the Government should in general be set at levels adequate to recover the full cost of providing the services.

"The Government implemented a fee review moratorium on government fees and charges set on a cost recovery basis from August 2019 to December 2021. Starting from early 2022, the Government has gradually resumed the review of various fees. This is the first revision proposal for the above-mentioned fees and economic costs since the lifting of the fee review moratorium.

"In order to achieve full cost recovery gradually and avoid a steep fee increase, the eight types of fees payable in respect of processing the applications for excavations and issuing XP by the Government will be increased by 8 per cent to 20 per cent. In addition, three sets of economic costs charged for the whole duration of the extended period of excavations in a street maintained by the HyD will be increased by 24 per cent to 25 per cent to drive the excavation permittees to complete their works as soon as possible so as to minimise the disturbance to the road users.

"As stated in the Information Paper to the Legislative Council Panel on Development dated July 15, 2024, the service users involved in the subject fees and economic costs are mainly public utilities (such as electricity companies, telecommunication companies, and the town gas company). The subject fees and economic costs should represent a minute portion (amounting to around 0.1 per cent) of the total operating cost of the public utilities. Thus, the proposed increases should have a limited impact on their operations. The relevant stakeholders have been consulted on the proposed fee revision. They did not raise any comment on the proposed fee revision."

The Regulation will be tabled at the Legislative Council on May 7. Subject to approval by negative vetting, the revised fees and economic costs will come into effect on July 1 this year.

Source: AI-generated images

Incoming passenger convicted and jailed for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes

An incoming passenger was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined $1,000 by the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts today (January 13) for importing duty-not-paid cigarettes and failing to declare them to Customs officers, in contravention of the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (DCO).

Customs officers intercepted the incoming male passenger, aged 29, at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (January 12), and seized 57 400 duty-not-paid cigarettes, with an estimated market value of $258,300 and a duty potential of about $190,000, from his personal baggage. The passenger was subsequently arrested.

Customs welcomes the sentence. The custodial sentence has imposed a considerable deterrent effect and reflects the seriousness of the offences.

Customs reminds members of the public that under the DCO, cigarettes are dutiable goods to which the DCO applies. Any person who imports, deals with, possesses, sells or buys illicit cigarettes commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

Members of the public may report any suspected illicit cigarette activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).