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"For an offence to be compounded, the maximum limit of the duty payable in respect of the goods involved will be $10,000. On compounding the offence, the full duty in respect of the dutiable goods involved will be deemed to have been paid. This will allow speedy settlement of these cases. Otherwise they would have to be prosecuted in court and the results achieved would be disproportionate to the resources used," the spokesman added.

The bill also includes other amendments which aim to keep the legislation up- to-date and in pace with other developments.

The Secretary for the Treasury will introduce the amendment bill into the Legislative Council on February 14.

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Legal Practitioners (A) Bill to be gazetted

A bill to introduce a local appointment system of notaries public in Hong Kong will be gazetted on Friday (February 2) and introduced into the Legislative Council on February 14, a government spokesman said today (Wednesday).

The Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 1996 will provide a statutory basis for the existing practice whereby only solicitors admitted in Hong Kong are appointed as notaries. The Bill will also establish the criteria and procedures of such appointments.

"The functions of a notary public in Hong Kong, as in other common law jurisdictions, are primarily to attest the execution and signature of documents and to take oaths and declarations in respect of documents for use in other countries," the spokesman said.

At present, all notaries public registered in Hong Kong are solicitors who have been granted notarial faculties by the Archbishop of Canterbury in England.

Under section 40 of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, the Registrar of the Supreme Court is required to register every notary public who produces his notarial faculty and files in the Court an affidavit of identity and pays the enrolment fee.