LIQUOR LICENCE APPLICATIONS (Review of procedures)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Eric Cheong Yuen Chee asked the Minister for Finance whether he will consider reviewing and streamlining the present outdated system for liquor licence applications.

The Minister for Finance (Mr Hon Sui Sen): Mr Speaker, Sir, since March 1981, when the Member for Toa Payoh raised the same question during the Parliamentary sitting, the Liquors Licensing Board has reviewed and revised certain procedures for the issue of liquor licences.

Previously, the practice was to publish in the Government Gazette notice of the meetings of the Liquors Licensing Board which are held once in three months. The law requires that applications for liquor licences be submitted to the Board not less than 30 days before the date of the meeting of the Board. This was because it would take about that length of time for the licence applications to be processed. The applications have to be cleared with other Government authorities, such as the Police and the Environmental Health Department.

Now, the practice of publishing notices of the quarterly meetings of the Board in the Government Gazette has been discontinued. The applicant can submit his application for a licence at any time, and if his application can be processed in time, it will be considered at the Board's next meeting.

Another procedure which has been revised concerns the requirement previously for all applicants for wholesalers' and retailers' liquor licences to complete renewal application forms. Applicants need not now complete such forms as the renewals are automatic unless objections against the licensees have been lodged with the Board during the preceding year.

However, the Board considers it necessary to require new applicants to continue to advertise their applications in two daily newspapers so as to give the public a chance to object to the applications.

As I have stated previously, if the Member has any suggestions to make regarding ways in which the procedures can be further improved, I shall be glad to consider them.