|
Publications and Press Releases :
Press Release
: News Archives
Various administration fees to be revised
************************************************
The Government today (January 6)
gazetted the Dutiable Commodities (Fee Revision) Regulation 2006,
Inland Revenue Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 5 and 11 - Fee
Revision) Order 2006 and Business Registration (Fee Reduction) Regulation
2006 to revise certain fees for licences and services under the
respective ordinances. The new fees will be introduced from March
to May, 2006.
The fee items to be revised relate to
a. The issue of licences of traders of
dutiable commodities and various certificates, storage for dutiable
commodities and supervision of bonded warehouse under the Dutiable
Commodities Ordinance;
b. Applications requiring the Board of
Review to state a case under Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO);
c. The issue of notice of no-objection
in respect of an application to deregister a private company under
the Companies Ordinance in accordance with IRO; and
d. The issue of certified copies of Business
Registration Certificate (BRC) and branch registration certificate,
certified and uncertified extracts of information on the Business
Register, duplicate BRC and duplicate branch registration certificate
under the Business Registration Ordinance (BRO).
"Most of the fees covered
were last revised in August, 2000. Most of them are not at full
cost recovery level at 2005-06 prices, and their cost-recovery levels
range from 3% to 94%. The fee revision would increase by 7% to 20%
with a view to achieving full cost recovery within one to seven
years," a government spokesman said.
"We also take this opportunity
to reduce four fees for certain services provided by the Inland
Revenue Department to the full cost level in one go.
"In line with the 'user pays'
principle, it is the Government's policy that fees should in general
be set at levels sufficient to recover the full cost of providing
the services. However, the Government has frozen most fees and charges
since 1998 as an exceptional measure to alleviate the financial
burden on the public in times of economic difficulty. In both the
2000-01 and 2004-05 Budget Speeches, the Financial Secretary indicated
the need to resume the revision of government fees and charges."
The spokesman said that the Legislative
Council Panel on Financial Affairs was consulted on June 6, 2005.
Members of the Panel did not object to the proposal.
"We have been taking measures
to reduce or contain costs through implementing efficiency initiatives,
reprioritising service provision and streamlining procedures. Substantial
savings have been achieved for certain services including the issue
of duplicate business registration certificates or duplicate branch
registration certificates due to efforts to streamline work procedures
and enhance the use of information technology. Over the years, these
efforts have resulted in substantial lowering of the cost of providing
such services and have created room for reduction of the related
fees," the spokesman said.
"If the proposed fees and
charges adjustments are implemented, it is estimated that there
will be a net decrease of revenue of about $5.5 million in the first
year," the spokesman said.
Ends/Friday, January 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:45
NNNN
|
|