CO129-525-3 Estimates 1931 and other financial papers 16-1-1930 - 1-9-1932 — Page 66

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

cussion is the one relating to fresh taxation. It is because in one form or another all pockets-with notable exceptions-are going to be touched.

Regarding the proposed new taxation, it has been asserted on the part of the Government that it is desired to ensure that the incidence of the new taxes will be fairly borne by the Colony, and the Colonial Secretary trusted that the members of this Council would agree that the Government's proposals should be adjudged equitable. The Colonial Secretary's hope applies with special reference to the augmentation of the general assessment rate by four per cent. The Honourable Spokesman for the Government regards this as "the fairest in its incidence of all forms of direct taxation."

I trust I shall not be misinterpreted in my criticism of the assertion when I question the fairness of the incidence of this taxation. The question of its fairness is arguable. It is not difficult to establish that, in the circumstances obtaining in the Colony at present, this form of direct taxation does not operate fairly at all.

I am not prompted by meanness or ungraciousness to a fairly large body of residents composing the administrative body of this Colony when I venture the statement that the conclusion is irresis- tible that the highest placed members of the Civil Service of Hong Kong escape taxation entirely when it is a question of an additional assessment rate being levied. I fail to see how the fairness claim can be defended when a $40 clerk has to pay his 4% on the rental of his poor flat and the humblest among the population, whose daily wage is reckoned in cents, has to contribute his quota of the same percentage on the value of the cubicle he occupies over-night. I am not attempting to dispute the wisdom or the expediency of com- fortably housing the civil servants of the Colony. That policy is sound and commendable. No great effort, however, is required to demonstrate how those employees of Government who occupy their houses rent-free will go "scot-free" when additional revenue is proposed to be raised out of house-rent.

Similarly, it can be shown that those members of the community, who represent the city magnates of this Colony, and who occupy palatial residences free of rent, also escape the proposed form of contribution towards the Colony's increased expenditure when more revenue is sought out of the House Tax.

It is, therefore, seen that those best able to pay are just those who can look on complacently while their less favoured brethren have to contribute their quota for the larger administrative expendi- ture for which the Bill now before the Council confers legislative authority.

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