CO129-582-7 Taxation 6-6-1939 - 5-2-1940 — Page 161

کو

169

SUMMARY OF MAIN CONCLUSIONS.

The terms of reference of the Committee were:-

to consider and report what methods of taxation could

best be adopted for the Colony, should it be necessary to

raise additional revenue, having regard to the Colony's

general economic position and the importance of distrib-

uting any additional burden in the most equitable manner

in relation to the incidence of existing taxation.

The Appendix summarises the principal classes

of revenue in Hong Kong, and broadly speaking taxation

in the strict sense is confined to:

(1) Duties on imports (20.2 per cent).

(2) Rates, (17.6 per cent).

(3)

Various estate, stamp, betting and entertainment

duties, (12.5 per cent).

By no means all the present sources of revenue

are susceptible to any deliberate increases; thus land

sales and rents are determined principally by commercial

demand. Furthermore the Committee were guided by the

view that it would be inadvisable to add to existing

forms of taxation a multiplicity of new forms which

would be irritating and harmful to the freedom of

business and trade.

they

The Report first set out certain proposals

for new impositions or for the increase of existing

taxes which the Committee considered and rejected;

then list a number of increases which they do recommend

and which, although individually small, may agregate

to a considerable sum, and finally they discuss

certain measures not one of which they considera

capable of producing substantial extra revenue.

I.