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PUBLIC ORDER
Independent Police Complaints Council
The council's main function is to monitor and review investigations of public complaints against the police. The investigations are made by the Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO) of the Royal Hong Kong Police.
The council is an independent body appointed by the Governor. The chairman and the two vice-chairmen are normally drawn from the Executive and the Legislative Councils. Its members include eight Justices of the Peace, the Attorney General and the Commissioner for Administrative Complaints, or their representatives.
During the year, the council endorsed 3 195 complaint investigations and interviewed 18 witnesses in six selected cases. It proposed some changes to police practices, procedures and the police complaint system, to improve overall effec- tiveness and to help reduce public complaints against the Police. The council also participated with the administration in a comparative study of police complaint systems in selected overseas jurisdictions. To acquire a more distinctive image, the council selected its logo from the winners of a logo design competition organised in mid-1995.
Customs and Excise
The Customs and Excise Department is organised into the Headquarters, Operations, Investigation, and Trade Controls branches; and the Civil Secretariat. It is primarily responsible for the collection and protection of revenue on dutiable goods, the suppression of illicit trafficking in narcotics, the prevention and detection of smuggling, and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. It has an establishment of 4 133 posts.
Revenue Protection
The department collects and protects duty revenue on four groups of dutiable com- modities in Hong Kong: liquor, tobacco, hydrocarbon oil and methyl alcohol. In 1995, the department collected $7,788 million in revenue from dutiable commodities, compared with $7,512 million in 1994, an increase of $276 million.
A 7.9 per cent increase in cigarette duty in March 1995 widened the price difference with cigarettes sold in Hong Kong and China. The smuggling of illicit dutiable cigarettes into the territory, either directly across the border or by less-direct diversionary routes, was still a problem. Besides the effective action already being taken by the task force set up to counter cigarette-smuggling, the department also stepped up co-operation with the tobacco industry and overseas enforcement agencies. In 1995, the department acted against offenders in 20 425 cases in which 323.6 million cigarettes were seized with a duty potential of $201.9 million.
The illegal use of industrial diesel oil by road vehicles and the unauthorised removal of markers and colouring from industrial diesel oil were still widespread. Diesel oil was also smuggled into Hong Kong from China by road and sea. The department immobilised nine illegal plants for removing colouring substance from industrial diesel oil, dismantled 228 illicit diesel oil outlets and interdicted 11 smuggling ventures. In all, 1 469 799.5 litres of diesel oil were seized and 1 212 people arrested. The department also assesses the first registration tax on motor vehicles under the Motor Vehicles (First Registration Tax) Ordinance. In 1995, the Motor Vehicles