435
During
disproportionate in the case of a private company.
It
the past four years, 1704 shares in the British American
Tobacco Company, of a face value of $100 each, have been
transferred. The transfer fees on these transactions,
supposing the shares to be at par, would be $340.80 on the
1921 scale, but the amount the company pays, as a China
company, in lieu of these fees, is $70,000 per annum.
would seem reasonable therefore that some differentiation
should be meie, as regards the 4 cents fee, between public
companies, the membership of which is unlimited, ani private
companies, the membership of which is limited to fifty,
exclusive of employees of the company.
Some remedy is equally called for in respect of the
duplication of the fee caused by the fact that the British
American Tobacco Company holds practically the whole of the
shares in its subsidiary companies, which have also to pay
the 4 cents fee, but it does not appear certain that this
state of affairs would be best remedied by a total exemption
of the subsidiary companies, as suggested in paragraph 5 of
H.E. the Governor's despatch. There are other companies in
more or less the same position (e.g. Dombay and Son, Limited,
in which Lane Crawford and Company, Limited, hold a large
proportion of the shares) and these would all be entitled to
the same treatment. In all these companies there is also a
greater or less amount of independent capital which would
not be entitled to exemption; it is suggested that the
duplication of the fee could be best remedied by levying the
fee in every case in full, and then allowing China companies
holding shares in other China companies to apply for a
refund of the fee on such shares.
→
H.E. the Governor, in paragraph 8 of his despatch,
suggests the possibility of an increase in the contribution
to the Shanghai Registry if adequate reasons can be shown.
It/