Pollock
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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
Your Excellency has recently appointed a Committee to go into details of the Income Tax Bill proposed by Government, and I under- stand that, in that letter of appointment, it was stated that Govern- ment was "willing to give full consideration to alternative methods of raising revenue." I have been informed, however, by the Government, that that remark does not mean that the members of that particular Committee are to be at liberty to suggest any alternative methods of taxation. Accordingly I venture to suggest that Your Excellency should now appoint a Committee for the purpose of considering alternative methods to income tax for raising revenue for the War Gift to the Imperial Government. On that Committee I should be glad, if considered eligible, to serve.
That Committee would no doubt be able to recommend many suitable alternatives to income tax. In the meanwhile I suggest some possible alternative methods of taxation, which have the merit of being easily collected, at small expense, and also of being widely spread, such
as:-
A percentage on every electric light and power bill.
A percentage on every gas bill.
A percentage on every telephone bill.
The raising of the annual licence fee charged for wireless sets. A tax on cinema and theatre tickets.
The institution of a special War surtax on the assessed rateable
value of property.
The collection of a percentage on dividends from investments in
Public Limited Companies in Hong Kong.
On behalf of all the Unofficial Members of this Council I desire to state that Income Tax is, in our opinion, detrimental to the future of this Colony, and to request Your Excellency to appoint a Committee to consider and report on alternatives to Income Tax, for the purpose of raising revenue for the War Gift to the Imperial Government.
It is my earnest hope that a just and wise solution of this taxation problem may be found and that what ought to be a free- will offering from this Colony will go Home with the cordial and united assent of every Member of this Council. (Applause).
HON. MR. CHAU TSUN-NIN.-Sir, As the draft estimates of expenditure for 1940-41 have been carefully considered by the Select Committee, I personally have no observations to make on the ordinary budget.
As regards the war budget, it is first of all my duty to the Chinese community to dispel any impression which may have got abroad that the motive behind any opposition that has been publicly or privately expressed to the institution of a tax on income reflects any reluctance to raise a special capital contribution to the War Funds of the Imperial Government. The suggestion that the comments or
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