TNAG-1449-FCO40-1953-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 289

Speech by the Hon. E. P. Ho, CBE, JP, Secretary for Trade and Industry,

in Legislative Council on Wednesday, 12 March 1986

Sir,

Paper.

2.

I move the motion standing in my name in the Order

The Import and Export (Registration) (Amendment)

Regulations 1986 seek to increase the penalties for late

declarations under the Import and Export (Registration)

Regulations and to raise the minimum charge for the ad valorem

levy to recover the cost of collection.

3.

The existing penalties for late declarations were

set in 1976. Since then the percentage of late declarations

has almost doubled. This adversely affects the accuracy

of Hong Kong's external trade statistics and it has been

necessary to deploy considerable staff resources to demand

lodgement and take follow-up action.

4.

Similarly, the present minimum charge of $2

$2 for

declarations not exceeding $4,000, which was set in 1966,

would need to be revised to cover the collection cost which

is now estimated at $4.78 per

per declaration. The proposed

revision will only affect declarations of a value below

$10,000 as

as the basic rate of the ad valorem levy at 50 cents

per $1,000 value above the minimum will remain unchanged.

5.

Sir, I beg to move.