63
54307/48
Saving.
From the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Officer Administering the Government of... HONG KONG
To
Date
12
March, 1948.
No.
232
Saving.
CONFIDENTIAL
Ansel. (8)
With reference to my despatch No.40 Confidential regarding the Inland Revenue Ordinance No.20 of 1947, I have had under consideration Section 6 of the Ordinance under which Property Tax is chargeable only at half the standard rate so long as rents are restricted with reference to pre-occupation rents. The reason for this concession, given in paragraph 11 of your despatch No.123A, was that owing to the rent restriction, property omers had not been able to recoup themselves in respect of their war losses in the same way as members of the business community. In this connection my attention has been drawn to paragraph 45 of the Report of the Hong Kong Salaries Commission where it is stated that there is evidence that Government servants are being forced by principal tenants to pay excessive rents. It may well be that the principal tenants themselves are indirectly obliged to pay rents in excess of those laid down under the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance. I appreciate the difficulties which must, in the circumstances of Hong Kong, exist in enforcing strict compliance with the terms of that Ordinance, and that it would not be feasible to withdraw the tax concession on those grounds. Nevertheless I should be glad if you would reconsider the tax concession at the earliest suitable opportunity, and see whether its continuance can still be justified.
SECER.
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