Date:
28.11.86
Time:
Reporter:
8.30
-
12.30
PMS
cence
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MR CHEONG:
Would it be fair to say that if the
2 Investigation Unit were not in existence that this HK$140 million
3 odd, or a large portion of it, would be in arrears, would not be
recovered?
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CIR:
Yes.
I would say not only in arrears,
will be gone, completely lost! That means unless you take action
to uncover, to uncover and recover the tax, otherwise it is lost. It is not something which they reported, but not collected, it is
something which has not been reported but uncovered and recovered.
MR POON:
Would you go still a little bit further
to say that unless you have that prosecution, unless you have the
Investigation Unit, that would not be such a deterrent, that people
would not be afraid to avoid taxes? The mere existence of your
Unit and investigation by itself would be a big deterrent.
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CIR:
In my humble view I must say so but the
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19 Director of Audit obviously is not quite in agreement with what I
said. What was said is that the more prosecution is necessary. I agree with that.
I am not saying, I am not disputing that there is
a need to have more prosecution, but the point which I make is that
I cannot manufacture prosecution cases and I don't want to do so otherwise I will be seen to have abused the power given to me. But I must give a sort of warning to the would-be tax evader that the 26 Department is very anxious to see through that they are prosecuted 27 if the case justify a prosecution.
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CHAIRMAN:
Mr Commissioner, I don't think the Committee
ask you to manufacture tax evasion cases! Neither is the Director of 31 Audit. I think the point is, tax evasion is a criminal offence and
every effort has got to be done by your Department, Commissioner, in 33 bringing justice in this case of tax evaders into courts. Peter?
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MR POON:
Yes.
Commissioner, do you think sufficient
36 publicity has been given to the fact that tax evasion is a crime and
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259
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