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Paying airport departure tax at hotels
Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the acting Secretary for the Treasury, Mr Kevin Ho, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
Regarding the arrangement under which departing passengers can pay the airport departure tax at hotels, will the Government inform this Council:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
(b)
(c)
of the number of passengers paying the airport departure tax at hotels since the introduction of the above arrangement;
whether the patronage of this arrangement is concentrated in certain hotels; and
whether it will consider introducing a similar arrangement to other operators in the tourism industry such as travel agents or coach operators?
The number of passengers who bought air passenger departure tax coupons at participating hotels since the introduction of the arrangement in May 1996 and up to the end of March 1997 is about 38 000.
These departure tax coupons were mainly sold in several hotels located in Central, Queensway, Tsimshatsui and Mongkok.
We have set up a working group within the Administration to examine possible alternatives for the collection of air passenger departure tax. In this process, we will consider the feasibility of extending the hotel arrangement to include other operators in the tourism industry.
End