XN000022-1997-01-22 — Page 49

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Assignment of judges

Following is a question by the Hon Chim Pui-chung and a written reply by the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council whether the plaintiff in civil proceedings has the right to make requests to the court regarding the assignment of judges; if not, of the reasons why cases involving certain organisations are always adjudicated by the same judges?

Reply:

In any trial, litigants have no right to choose judges or to make requests to the court regarding the assignment of judges.

The Judiciary maintains several specialist lists of cases, and assign judges with expertise in these particular areas to hear these cases. Cases falling within the specialist lists are therefore usually heard by judges assigned to those lists.

End

Overpayment of tax

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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan Wai-yip and a written reply by the Secretary for the Treasury, Mr K C Kwong in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

At present, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) imposes a surcharge not exceeding 5% of the tax in default on a taxpayer who has not paid the tax by the specified date. However, in the event of overpayment of tax by a taxpayer due to the IRD's incorrect assessment, no interest is paid to the taxpayer when the excess tax is refunded. In view of this, will the Government inform this Council whether the IRD has any plan to pay interest to taxpayers who have paid excess tax; if so, when such a plan will be implemented; if not, why not?