- 6
-
The proposed concession will bring relief to home buyers purchasing lower to medium-value flats, in particular the Home Ownership Scheme and Sandwich Class Housing Scheme flat buyers. The concession should not fuel speculation in the market for properties with values below $4 million, which is not the main target of speculators. While the concession would help to relieve the financial burden on genuine flat buyers, the actual amount involved, which would constitute a part of the overall property transaction cost, would not be sufficient by itself to provide additional financial incentives to attract speculators.
Mr President, with these remarks, I commend the Bill to Members.
End
Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 1997
Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for the Treasury, Mr Kevin Ho, in moving the second reading of the Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 1997 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 1997 be read the second time.
Specifically the Bill seeks to increase the duty rates for tobacco, fuel and methyl alcohol by 6%, in line with inflation, so as to maintain the real value of the duties. This is consistent with our overall budgetary strategy whereby we aim at maintaining the yield in real terms from the various sources of revenue to ensure financial stability.
The Bill also seeks to reduce the ad valorem duty rate on wine from 90 per cent to 60 per cent. The reduction will benefit consumers, the tourist industry and our business in general.
The revision of duties already came into effect on 12 March 1997 under a Public Revenue Protection Order signed by the Governor, which is valid for four months. We note that the duty increases have been generally accepted by the community. As for the duty reduction in wine, we have asked the Consumer Council to monitor the response in the retail market in order to ascertain whether the benefit of the duty reduction has been passed on to consumers. As reported by the Consumer Council, major retailers have responded positively and there has been a price cut of 10-15% after the duty revision came into effect. Other retailers are expected to follow suit after their old stock with duty paid at the 90% rate has been exhausted.