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Explaining the fee revision, a government spokesman said the average 9.2 per cent increase was in line with the increase in costs for the year. These fees were last revised in August 1994.
Fees to be revised are those payable to the Registrar of Companies under the Companies Ordinance (Amendment of Eighth Schedule) Order 1996; Companies Ordinance (Fee for Taking Affidavit, Affirmation or Declaration) (Amendment) Notice 1996; Limited Partnerships Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule) Order 1996; and Trustee Ordinance (Amendment of First Schedule) Notice 1996.
The spokesman added that three new fee items would also be introduced to streamline and rationalise procedures.
"One of these is a further tier of late payment charges applicable when annual returns are delivered to the Registrar of Companies more than nine months after their due date," he said.
"At the same time, in order to improve efficiency, certain minor filing fees wil! no longer be charged separately but will be subsumed under the general fee for annual returns."
The second item, the spokesman said, was for the existing fee for the incorporation of a new company to be split into an element payable for lodging an application and an element payable upon completion of the procedures.
"The second part of the new fee will be refunded if the application is not successful," he said.
The third item was a similar division of the fee for applying to change a company's name, into a lodgement fee and a fee upon successful completion of the procedures, the spokesman said.
"The non-refundable element for lodging an application was proposed following a review of procedures by the Efficiency Unit," he said.
"The Efficiency Unit pointed out that the registry is required to carry out a considerable amount of processing whether or not an application is ultimately successful. The non-refundable element is to cover this processing work," he added.
The spokesman said the Companies Registry was continually seeking to upgrade and develop its services and facilities.
"Over the year, the registry has instituted a number of new and improved services," he said.
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