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Companies (Fees and Percentages)(Amendment) Order
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services, Mr Rafael Hui, in the motion on the Companies (Fees and Percentages)(Amendment) Order 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move the first motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Companies (Fees and Percentages)(Amendment) Order 1996 was made by the Chief Justice. It increases certain fees payable to the Registrar of Companies in relation to the inspection and photocopying of liquidators' statements sent to the Registrar under the Companies Ordinance.
The fees are increased, on average, by 9.2% in line with the increase in costs due to inflation as measured by the Government consumption expenditure deflator. These fees were last revised in August 1994.
As a trading fund, the Companies Registry is required to provide an efficient and effective service while meeting the cost of the services that it provides from the income it receives. Since its establishment as a trading fund in August 1993, the Registry has introduced a number of measures to improve its services. These include obtaining customers' views with present and proposed services by way of visits, questionnaires and surveys, and introducing additional services such as on-line indexes of documents and listed company directors in refurbished and user-friendly premises. The latest service introduced last week is a facility to allow customers to have remote access to the registry's names and document indexes and to order company searches by fax. The Registry has budgeted for these modest fee increases to enable it to continue with its programme of developments and improvements in technology and services while ensuring that it can cover its increased costs. The revised fees, if approved, will come into operation on 1 March 1996.
Mr President, I beg to move.
End