13
Wednesday, March 15, 1972
"The rates of pay and allowances for Auxiliaries should therefore be
realistic and should compare favourably with the average salaries of the general
public. In this respect the rates of pay and allowances of Government civil
servants and Services personnel should be used for comparison purposes,
" he added.
On estate duty, Mr. Woo said he welcomed the proposal of the Financial
Secretary to reduce it to the maximum rate of 15 per cent only.
"However, I think my Honourable Friend should not stop at 15 per cent
but should consider reducing the rate progressively until the total abolition
of estate duty in Hong Kong is achieved,"
Avoidance Action
Recalling the words of the Financial Secretary when he presented his
Budget on March 1, that the proposed reduction "will also help to discourage
Hong Kong residents from taking avoidance action by transferring their assets
overseas before death", Mr. Woo said "there is also the benefit that if no
estate duty is payable in Hong Kong, persons from overseas will bring their
assets into Hong Kong for investment or business".
On the growth of the public service, he said the Establishment Sub-
Committee was specially concerned about the economical and efficient use of staff
when proposals for increases of posts were being considered.
He added it was very important that there should be adequate numbers
of supervisory staff to ensure that junior staff could carry out their work as
efficiently as possible and that even in the middle grade sufficient control
should be exercised to avoid a wastage of manpower and to streamline the work
and thus prevent undue delay in matters within and without the service and in
particular in relation to the general public.
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