ENG-2008 — Page 102

62 The Economy

$1 billion of gross profits thereafter, up to 75 per cent on the remainder of gross profits exceeding $15 billion. The duty on football betting, which was introduced on August 1, 2003, is charged at a rate of 50 per cent of gross profits. The yield from betting duty in 2007-08 totalled some $13 billion, about 4 per cent of total revenue.

In 2007-08, a hotel accommodation tax of 3 per cent (revised to 0 per cent from July 1, 2008) was imposed on expenditure on accommodation by guests in hotels and guesthouses.

Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, excise duties are levied on only four types of commodities to be consumed locally hydrocarbon oil, liquor, methyl alcohol and tobacco, irrespective of whether they are manufactured locally or imported. The Customs and Excise Department is responsible for collecting these duties. In 2007-08, the department collected duties of $7.06 billion (about 2 per cent of total revenue).

Duties on wine and other non-hard liquors were exempted with effect from February 27, 2008. Duty on Euro V diesel was also removed on July 14, 2008.

The Rating and Valuation Department is responsible for the billing and collection of rates, which are levied on landed properties at a specified percentage of their rateable values. The rates percentage charge in 2008-09 was 5 per cent.

The rateable value of a property is an estimate of its annual open market rent as at a designated date. Revaluation of rateable values is conducted annually to better reflect prevailing market rents. The current Valuation List took effect on April 1, 2008, with rateable values reflecting the rental values on October 1, 2007.

The Valuation List contained about 2.3 million assessments on March 31, 2008. The revenue from rates in 2007-08 was $9.5 billion, amounting to about 3 per cent of total revenue.

To share wealth with the community, the Government continued to grant rates concession to all ratepayers to offset the rates payable for the four quarters from April 2008 to March 2009, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per quarter for each rateable tenement. As a result, about 97 per cent of ratepayers were not required to pay any rates, while the remaining 3 per cent of ratepayers had their rates bills reduced by the full concession amount of $5,000, costing the Government about $11.2 billion.

The Rating and Valuation Department is also responsible for the billing and collection of Government rent for properties held under land leases granted on or after May 27, 1985, or on the extension of non-renewable land leases. Government rent is levied at 3 per cent of the rateable value of the property and is adjusted in step with any subsequent changes in the rateable value. There were about 1.8 million assessments in the Government Rent Roll on March 31, 2008. Total government rent collected in 2007-08 was $5.8 billion, or about 2 per cent of total

revenue.