HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD FLATS (Purchase by civil servants approaching retirement)

Inche Rahmat Bin Kenap asked the Minister for Law and National Development if he will request the Housing and Development Board to consider allowing the down payment for the purchase of a flat by a civil servant who is approaching retirement, to be deferred and be deducted from the gratuity payable to him on retirement.

Mr E. W. Barker: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Housing and Development Board is prepared, subject to certain conditions, to allow the down payment for the purchase of a flat by a civil servant who is approaching retirement to be deferred and to be deducted from the gratuity payable to him on retirement. However, section 11 of the Pensions Ordinance, 1956, does not allow the assignment or the transfer of the gratuity except for certain specified purposes. With the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, it is proposed to form a working cornmittee of officials to formulate a scheme to enable civil servants on the verge of retirement to make use of their gratuities in order to purchase Housing and Development Board flats.

3.30 p.m.

Mr Speaker: It is 3.30 p.m. now. The rest of the Questions* will be asked and answered at the next sitting.

(* These Questions appear respectively as Questions Nos. 7, 8 and 9 in cols. 565-71.)