Monthly public car parking rentals safe for now

Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo Arrais do Rosário said the government did not plan to cancel the monthly parking rental system for public parking lots in the coming six months to a year, a response that follows legislators’ discussions about whether such a system should continue.
Legislators Si Ka Lon and Song Pek Kei, who initiated a motion of debate on the subject, reckon that the monthly parking rental system for public parking lots no longer fits the reality of the city as the big discrepancy between the public rental rate and the private one has led to some abuses of public resources.
Mr. Si has cited an example to Business Daily that some people who leased public parking lots have let these lots out to others at twice the cheap monthly rental fees they had been paying to the government.
Speaking to the legislators yesterday, Mr. Rosário said he acknowledged such abuses, adding that the government would take back the public car parking lot leased via monthly fees once they identify tenants violating the parking rules.
But he said that the government did not intend to review the public car parking regulations in the coming six months to a year; in other words, the monthly parking rental system for public parking lots will not be scrapped in the short term.
The Secretary stressed the stance that the government would no longer encourage the use of the monthly parking system for public car parking lots.
He reiterated that the government would not renew any lease for the 4,000-odd holders of a monthly parking ticket once they terminate the rent at the public car parking lots.
The Transport Bureau (DSAT) currently manages 38 public car parks. In sixteen of these public car parks some 4,692 parking lots are leased out via the payment of a monthly parking fee. According to an update from the Secretary yesterday, 423 of these public parking lots have no longer seen any monthly lease renewal.
In the Assembly, Mr. Rosário additionally said that about 500 public car parking lots in Fai Chi Kei and Taipa would be ready for use by early next year.
The increased availability of public car parking lots is part of the government’s plan to build 12 new car parks providing about 7,100 parking lots in total, Mr Rosário said previously.