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MPF Bill: amendment of clauses
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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Michael Leung, in moving the amendments of various clauses of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Bill in the Legislative Council today (Thursday);
Clauses 2, 4, 9, 11, 12,13, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28 to 31, 39, 40 and 41
Mr Chairman,
I move that the clauses specified be amended as set out under my name in the paper circulated to Members.
The definition of "accrued benefits" as drafted in the Bill refers to the "proceeds of investments. As investment returns may be negative at times, I propose to amend the definition to the effect that the benefits will include "income or profits arising from any investments thereof, but taking into account any losses in respect thereof". The same amendment is proposed to clause 11(2).
The amendment to the definition of "self-employed person" makes it clear that only those self-employed person whose relevant income derives in Hong Kong will be covered by the Bill.
The amendments to the definitions of "exempt person", "master trust scheme", "relevant employee" and "relevant income" in clause 2 are for the purposes of clarifying the meaning of those terms. The amendment to clause 4(1) is a technical
one.
Some Members have expressed concern that clauses 4(3) and 4(4) as drafted in the Bill may not reflect adequately our policy intention to exclude from the MPF persons who come here from overseas to work intermittently, and those who come here from abroad to work and are already members of retirement scheme outside Hong Kong. The amended sub-clauses (3) and (4), should put this beyond doubt, while the new sub clause (4) would allow the Authority to make rules to specify the circumstances in which this exemption would apply, the new sub clause (5) would specify the meaning of "limited period".
The amendments to clauses 9, 12, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 and 31 are technical in nature, being mainly for the clarification of the relevant provisions in the Bill.