XN000022-1973-02-28 — Page 5

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Wednesday, February 28, 1973

Abolition of the stamp duty on receipts.

Abolition of minor stamp duties on a miscellany of documents, such as Bills of Lading, Affidavits,

Hire Purchase etc.

Abolition of the tax on admission charges to cinemas.

Subject to approval, all these proposals will come into effect

on April 1 this year.

The Financial Secretary announced a 100 per cent increase in the

rate of ad valorem duty on contract notes in respect of share transactions.

The rate will go up from 20 cents to 40 cents for each note

or from 40 cents to 80 cents for each transaction.

The increased rate of duty will be applicable to all transactions

entered into from tomorrow.

To this end, the Governor signed an order under the Public Revenue

Protection Ordinance this morning.

Mr. Haddon-Cave also announced increases in fees for driving test

application forms and driving licences.

The fee for the application form would be raised from $20 to $150

and for a provisional licence from $40 to $100.

At the same time, the fee for a driving licence would be raised from

$10 to $50.

The Financial Secretary said that the net effect of his budget proposals

was to increase the difference of $313 million between the printed revenue

estimates and the Draft Estimates of Expenditure by $201 million to $514

million.

This, he said, represented "the surplus I am actually budgetting for."

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