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issued under the Secretary of State's exercise of the
royal prerogative and
the Governor of Hong Kong
will be authorised to act as agent for the Secretary
of State in this respect.
6. The fees chargeable for passport services performed
in the name of the Secretary of State are those laid
down in Consular Fees Orders made under the Consular
Fees Act 1980 and these will be the fees chargeable by
the Governor of Hong Kong when acting as agent for the
Secretary of State. The fee for the issue of a passport
is currently £15.
7. Since these fees would be covered by the Consular
Fees Act the Hong Kong Government would not normally be
permitted to retain any part of them. At present passport
fees received by our overseas posts are appropriated-in-aid,
but from 1 April 1986 passport fees are to be surrendered
to the Consolidated Fund as extra receipts. Approximately
130,000 passports are issued annually in Hong Kong to
BDTCS. Between 1987 and 1997 an even larger number of
applications for BN (0) passports is expected, since the
acquisition of BN(0) status is dependent on the holding
of; or inclusion in, a passport showing that status.
Therefore the loss to the Hong Kong Government of revenue
from passports would be considerable if proceeds were to
be remitted to the UK Treasury. Moreover, since the
administrative arrangements for the issue of BN(0)
passports will be essentially the same as existing
passport-issuing arrangements in Hong Kong (the work will
still in practice be done by members of the Hong Kong
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3
/Government)