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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
Draft Bills.
No. S. 517.-The following Bills are published for general information:
Short title.
Substitution for Ordin- ance No. 40 of 1931, Proviso.
Amendment
[No. 29-14.10.40.—1.]
A BILL
INTITULED
An Ordinance to amend the Betting Duty Ordinance, 1931.
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Betting Duty Amendment Ordinance, 1940.
2. The Proviso to section 2 of the Betting Duty Ordin- ance, 1931, is repealed and the following Proviso is sub- stituted therefor-
Provided that not less than eighty-nine per cent., or in the case of a club organizing the race not less than seventy- eight per cent., of the total contributions or subscriptions, after deduction of the duty, shall be devoted to prizes for the subscribers.
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3. Section 6 (2) of the Betting Duty Ordinance, 1931, of Ordinance is amended by the substitution of the words "ten per cent.' 1931, s. 6 (2). for the words five per cent.".
No. 40 of
Commence- ment.
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4. This Ordinance shall come into force on the 1st day of January, 1941.
Objects and Reasons.
1. The object of this Bill is to raise the betting duty on cash-sweep tickets from five per cent. to ten per cent.
2. Clause 3 of the Bill provides for that change in section 6 (2) of the principal Ordinance, No. 40 of 1931.
3. This raising of the duty involves reconsideration of the proviso to section 6 (2) of the principal Ordinance which enacted that not less than ninety per cent., or in the case of a club organizing the race not less than eighty per cent., of the total contributions or subscriptions, after deduction of the duty, should be devoted to prizes for the subscribers.
3. The Taxation Committee recommended that increase in betting duty should be borne entirely by the betting public, and to achieve this result as nearly as possible
-nine for ninety clause 2 of the Bill substitutes "eighty-r and "seventy-eight" for "eighty in the proviso to section 2 of the principal Ordinance.
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4. The changed figures will enable the clubs as well as the Government to derive some benefit; but there is nothing in the new proviso to prevent the clubs devoting to prizes for the public a higher percentage if they so decide.
5. Clause 4 of the Bill provides that the amendments shall come into force on the 1st January, 1941.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
October, 1940.