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Commenting on land revenue, Mr Leung said, "The revised estimate for 1995- 96 is $5.5 billion (14.9%) higher than the original estimate largely because we managed to make better sites available and the premia realised are higher than expected.
"We should not at this stage read too much into the 1996-97 land revenue estimate which is $6.4 billion lower than the 1995-96 revised estimate. The estimate has been prepared based on the anticipated site availability in the year and prevailing market conditions. This reflects the location, area and permitted use of the overall land sales programme proposed for 1996-97 which has yet to be approved by the Land Commission."
End
Six amendment bills seek to combat smuggling
Six amendment bills seeking to remove a loophole in the existing definitions which hinders the Government's effort in combating smuggling from China by vehicle will be gazetted this Friday (March 15).
The six amendment bills are: the Import and Export (Amendment) Bill, the Control of Chemicals (Amendment) Bill, the Reserved Commodities (Amendment) Bill, the Trade Description (Amendment) Bill, the Toys and Children's Products Safety (Amendment) Bill and the Consumer Goods Safety (Amendment) Bill.
A Government spokesman said: "The bills seek to amend the definition of 'article in transit', 'goods in transit' and 'controlled chemical in transit' in the six corresponding Ordinances by deleting the references to 'vehicle'.
"Currently. items in transit are exempted from certain import and export
controls.
"Under the existing definitions, an item is in transit if it is brought into Hong Kong solely for the purpose of taking it out of Hong Kong and remains on board the same vessel, aircraft or vehicle throughout its passage through Hong Kong."