Hong Kong badly needs to raise revenue to restore fiscal balance. This is both a requirement of the Basic Law and a condition for sustainable development. Ensuring fiscal sustainability must be a priority.

The legislator Paul Tse Wai-chun raised the point that parking problems could be an obstacle to invigorating the weak economy, as even a few minutes of illegal parking for quick shopping can lead to a stiff fine. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pointed out, correctly, that handing out fines to drivers who park their cars illegally is legitimate. However, many drivers, myself included, have also found that oftentimes, the illegal parking in question is on a street that is wide enough to allow parking without blocking traffic. Under these circumstances, allowing parking and installing meters that allow 15 minutes of parking will not only make life easier for shoppers but will also benefit businesses and help the government get some more revenue.

I used to take my family to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Swimming Pool. About a year ago, it had allowed additional cars to enter the parking lot, over and above the designated parking spaces. These cars parked close to the curbs along the driveway without blocking traffic. These days, however, for some reason, additional cars are not admitted once the designated parking spaces have been taken up. I find this very strange because the driveway is quite wide and allowing extra cars to park along the curbs would cause no one inconvenience. These days, I find cars lining up to wait for entry. Some drivers are too impatient to wait and go away. This means that facilities, including the pool and the nice park, may not be able to serve residents as well as they could.

On Sept 19, I wrote in this column arguing that illegal structures that are safe can be legalized. If carried out properly, this legalization can be done without damage to the initial intent of the law. Some people worry that legalizing illegal structures would damage the credibility of the law, as people might simply build illegal structures without going through the proper procedures. But this concern can be easily addressed with an appropriate fine, which would restore the incentive for people to go through the proper procedures. This way, the government would collect the fine, revise the assessment for rates, and start collecting more revenue through higher rates. I had suggested that the owners of properties with the illegal structures must find an authorized person to examine and certify the safety of the illegal structures every five years. These regular examinations by authorized people would ensure the safety of the illegal structures, and also add to the disincentive of property owners to take a shortcut and bypass the required procedures of application.

Changing the law from time to time is sensible because the needs of society, the composition of the inhabitants of the jurisdiction, technology, and knowledge are all changing. Having rules that are outdated or upholding a law that is outdated damages the reputation of the legal system. If the law has outlived its useful life, it should be scrapped or changed

In some cases, some properties have been found to have been unlawfully enlarged to occupy government land. This of course should be punished with an appropriate fine. However, if the government land has absolutely no potential for development or for any public use, for example, because the lot is too tiny or because it offers no access, the best way forward is to allow the owner to buy the government land. The government could then collect the fine and the purchase cost of the occupied land, and in addition, collect higher rates from the time the government land was occupied.

Currently, Hong Kong’s tax system has a unique feature. This is the standard tax rate provision. It offers taxpayers the right to pay salary taxes of no more than 15 percent of their gross incomes in case tax calculations according to the tax table led to a tax liability larger than 15 percent. I would say this additional feature does not really simplify Hong Kong’s tax structure but makes it unreasonably complicated and therefore should be scrapped. If the majority of Hong Kong people are paying taxes according to the tax bracket structure, everybody can do the same, and this is simple. Applying a higher tax rate on the income increments beyond the tax allowances is universally accepted. Any justification for maintaining the standard tax rate must be based on stretching the logic. This will not bring in too much additional revenue, but it does help a little. I would suggest that the financial secretary also consider raising the top marginal tax rate from 17 percent to 19 percent. Then scrapping the standard tax rate would help more.

The idea of all these suggestions is to emphasize the fact that regulations and the law should change with the times to serve people better. This is true both in common law jurisdictions and civil law jurisdictions. Changing the law from time to time is sensible because the needs of society, the composition of the inhabitants of the jurisdiction, technology, and knowledge are all changing. Having rules that are outdated or upholding a law that is outdated damages the reputation of the legal system. If the law has outlived its useful life, it should be scrapped or changed.

The author is director of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.