TNAG-1858-FCO40-2633-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 167

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

19 July 1989

香港立法局

一九八九年七月十九日

54

黃宏發議員致辭:夫婦分開徵稅計劃的反對立場和反對理由,我在過去數年的預算辯論案發言時 已明言。我反對的立場和理由至今仍未變,所以我完全同意剛才方黃吉零議員的發言。我只想指 出兩點有關現行稅制(這稅制即將改變)的誤解。第一點,現時制度是以家庭作為徵稅的對象, 一家之主可以是男性,亦可以是女性;第二點,若果家庭與家庭之間,有些是已婚,有些是未婚 稅制方面有所不均衡、不公平的話,解決方法不一定是夫婦分開報稅,可用一個任何工作配偶 而非袛限工作室的免稅額來解決,因此,今日的問題是女權問題令稅制複雜化後的一個應變方 法,所以我不能支持今次的動議。

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MRS. CHOW: Sir, over the years I have been among those who have supported the principle of separate taxation and therefore I am only too happy to support the Bill before Council.

Listening to the debate, it has struck me that it is not easy to be the Administration these days. After giving in to years of request by the public, it is now being taken to task for having given in. Perhaps the problem was that the Administration tried too hard to ease the unhappiness in the community by introducing the working wife allowance which seems to have been responsible for the short-lived anomaly which is now the present cause of complaint.

I am therefore in support of more generous adjustments to the basic personal allowances as soon as possible to remove the anomaly.

Sir, I support the motion.

FINANCIAL SECRETARY: Sir, I wish to thank Mr. Peter POON and members of the ad hoc group set up to study the Bill for their detailed consideration of its provisions during the consultation period. I am also most grateful to Mr. POON, Mrs. Selina CHOW, Mrs. Rita FAN and Mrs. Miriam LAU for their support. I shall be moving certain amendments at the Committee stage.

Let me begin by addressing the arguments of Mr. TAM Yiu-chung and Mrs. Peggy LAM for retaining the working wife allowance. The major flaw of the working wife allowance is that it discriminates in favour of a married couple where both the husband and wife work. In particular, it provides them with a greater entitlement to allowances than is available to a single-income family or to two unmarried persons with the same income. Furthermore, as a matter of principle, an allowance should not be based on the concept of its being compensation for any additional family expenses incurred as a consequence of the wife taking up employment. Save its use as an interim relief measure