Speech by the Hon. E. P. Ho, CBE, JP, Secretary for Trade and Industry,
in Legislative Council on Wednesday, 12 March 1986
Sir,
Paper.
2.
I move the motion standing in my name in the Order
The Import and Export (Registration) (Amendment)
Regulations 1986 seek to increase the penalties for late
declarations under the Import and Export (Registration)
Regulations and to raise the minimum charge for the ad valorem
levy to recover the cost of collection.
3.
The existing penalties for late declarations were
set in 1976. Since then the percentage of late declarations
has almost doubled. This adversely affects the accuracy
of Hong Kong's external trade statistics and it has been
necessary to deploy considerable staff resources to demand
lodgement and take follow-up action.
4.
Similarly, the present minimum charge of $2
$2 for
declarations not exceeding $4,000, which was set in 1966,
would need to be revised to cover the collection cost which
is now estimated at $4.78 per
per declaration. The proposed
revision will only affect declarations of a value below
$10,000 as
as the basic rate of the ad valorem levy at 50 cents
per $1,000 value above the minimum will remain unchanged.
5.
Sir, I beg to move.