ELECTRONIC road pricing, increases in vehicle tax and other schemes are on the cards as the Government tries to curb the alarming growth in cars.
The Secretary for Transport, Yeung Kai-yin, said the Government would also find ways to increase road capacity to control increasing congestion.
This could be achieved by speeding up roadworks and reducing the frequency of such work, he told members of the Legislative Council transport panel.
He said the existing system of granting permits to companies to carry out road repairs was not working.
But the possibility of raising first registration tax on cars evoked strong objections from legislators who insisted the Government adopt positive initiatives to deal with the problem.
Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee of the Liberal Party and Peggy Lam Pei Yu-dja were the most vocal critics.
''How on earth are you going to reduce the annual growth rate from nine per cent now to 1.6 per cent between 1997 to 2001? The Government must have a very austere drive to help achieve this,'' Mrs Lam said.