'Raising public fees won't do much to ease deficit'
A Chinese University economist on Tuesday played down the idea that raising fees for public services would be a way to plug the SAR's ballooning deficit.  Financial Secretary Paul Chan wrote on his Sunday blog that it may be time for a review of fees, such as hospital charges and payments for leisure services, which have been long frozen.  But taking university tuition fees as an example, associate professor of economics Terence Chong warned that the charges would never be high enough to fully cover the costs involved. "I don't think it will help much. Public service revenue involves around HK$10 billion. Even if the fees are increased by 50 percent, it will only raise HK$5 billion, which still falls short of the current fiscal deficit of HK$100 billion," he said on an RTHK programme. Chong added that public fees should only go up in line with inflation.     Speaking on the same programme, DAB lawmaker Edmund Wong said officials should consider increasing fines for illegal parking and late tax returns.   Meanwhile, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation Sze Lai-shan said that if fees for using hospital A&E departments are raised, exemptions should be given to those with financial difficulties.