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Wednesday, February 24, 1971
TELEVISION LICENCE FEES TO BE ABOLISHED
500,000 TV Set Owners To Benefit
Television licence fees would be abolished from April 1, 1972,
Sir John Cowperthwaite, announced in the Legislative Council today.
The abolition is one of two tax repeals proposed by the Financial
Secretary in his Budget speech.
Sir John said when he proposed the abolition of radio licence fees
four years ago, it was the Government's intention to retain the television
licence fee of $36 a year as television was still something of a luxury for
the few.
But Hong Kong's increasing affluence had changed the situation with
"remarkable rapidity", and it was estimated that there were now more than
500,000 television sets in operation.
He said although efforts to reduce evasion had been meeting with
substantial success, it was difficult to limit it to reasonable proportions.
Revenue was estimated at $8.4 million this year and just under $9.1 million
next year, or less than half the amount legally due.
At the same time, there had been a substantial increase in revenue
from the royalty payable by the Television Broadcasts Limited although the
revenue, at $2.5 million, was small compared with that from licence fees.
The Financial Secretary said there had been a certain amount of publio
complaint about the arrangements made for abolition of radio licences because
some unlucky people had just renewed their licences, while some lucky ones had
licences that were about to expire.
/He