Revenue bill to be tabled to HK LegCo

HONG KONG, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The Revenue Bill 2008, which seeks to implement a number of the measures announced in the 2008-09 Budget, has been gazetted and will be tabled to lawmakers on May 7, Hong Kong Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said here Friday.

The bureau said the Hotel Accommodation Tax Ordinance and the Inland Revenue Ordinance will be amended to effect the relevant revenue proposals.

The proposal to waive the hotel accommodation tax will be effected by amending the Hotel Accommodation Tax Ordinance and will come into effect on July 1. Other proposals relating to salaries tax, tax under personal assessment, profits tax and property tax will be effected by amending the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

The proposal to waive the hotel accommodation tax will cost the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR) government 470 million HK dollars(60.41 million U.S. dollars) a year while the suggestion to lower the standard rate and corporate tax rate will cost the Government about 5.36 billion HK dollars(688.95 million U. S. dollars) a year.

The plan to increase personal allowances and widen tax bands will cost the HKSAR government about 2.31 billion HK dollars (296. 92 million U.S. dollars) a year while the proposal to increase the deduction ceiling for approved charitable donations will cost the HKSAR government about 80 million HK dollars(10.28 million U.S. dollars) a year.

The suggestion to reduce salaries tax, tax under personal assessment, profits tax and property tax for 2007-08 by 75 percent, subject to a ceiling of 25,000 HK dollars(3,213 U.S. dollars) for each case, will cost the HKSAR government about 14.81 billion HK dollars(190.36 million U.S. dollars) in 2008-09.