PRIVATE PROVIDENT FUND DEPOSITS (Purchase of Housing Board flats)

Mr Cheong Yuen Chee asked the Minister for Finance, in view of the policy of the Government to promote private ownership of Housing and Development Board flats, if he will consider introducing amending legislation to allow persons who are members of approved private provident funds to use their deposits to purchase those flats without affecting their income tax liabilities.

Mr Tang See Chim (for the Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, I am not entirely clear as to what the hon. Member has in mind, but the Government has no intention whatsoever of initiating legislation which will interfere with the right of private provident funds to manage their schemes in their own way. Some of these schemes are contributory, some are not. Some confer entitlement to the employers' contributions only after a definite period of service. In some funds (99 out of 107 approved funds according to the record) members already make contributions to the central Provident Fund which they can withdraw for the purchase of Housing and Development Board flats.

However, if any approved private provident fund wishes to amend its rules to permit withdrawal by its members to purchase Housing and Development Board flats, I am prepared to ask the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to consider sympathetically such amendment without affecting its approved status.