3
"Owners who do not comply with the orders without a reasonable excuse are liable to prosecution under the Buildings Ordinance," Dr Choi said.
The $17 million contract was awarded to Cheung Kee Fung Cheung Construction Co. Ltd.
End
Revised Declaration Charges become effective on May 8
Revised declaration charges payable to the Government upon lodgements of Trade Declarations (TDEC) will become effective on May 8, 1997, a Government spokesman said today (Monday).
The relevant commencement notice was published in the Gazette last week.
The revised declaration charges are set out under the Import and Export (Registration) (Amendment) Regulation 1997, which was approved by the Legislative Council on April 16.
"Declaration charges payable to Government for each TDEC lodged through the Community Electronic Trading Service (CETS) will go down while those payable for paper lodgements will increase slightly," the spokesman said.
"This is to encourage the use of the CETS and to dissuade the continuation of paper lodgements. All existing methods of paper lodgements will be withdrawn by March 2000 and TDEC can only be lodged through the CETS then."
The CETS is provided by Tradelink, the company which was granted the exclusive right to launch electronic services for handling a range of Government trade- related transactions. Tradelink entered into commercial operation in January 1997 and has already signed up about 1,000 subscribers so far.
"The use of electronic trading methods will enable business to be conducted more efficiently. To remain competitive in today's trading environment, Hong Kong should keep pace with the world by adopting such methods," he said.
End