Following is the transcript of remarks by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, after attending a radio programme this morning (August 14):

Reporter: Secretary, how would you respond to some criticism saying that this tax reform plan will overcomplicate our tax system? And would you expect that this tax reform bill will be submitted to LegCo next legislative year actually?

Financial Secretary: Well, the proposed two-tier tax system is in fact quite simple. Under the proposed arrangement, the first $2 million of business profits will be subject to a tax rate of 10 per cent, and the remainder profit will continue to be taxed at 16.5 per cent, so in itself it is not really a very complicated tax provision. So it seems to me it won't complicate the current tax system. As to the preparation of implementing this proposed system, we have studied several schemes and find this proposal workable, but it requires amendments to the Inland Revenue Ordinance. So subject to the announcement by the Chief Executive at an appropriate time, we will bring the proposed legislation to the Legislative Council for scrutiny.

Reporter: Secretary, just an extra question about "cheat" stocks. You issued a blog post yesterday. This morning, you know, do you worry about this trend may actually be growing?

Financial Secretary: I'm not suggesting that a trend is growing. I just want to reiterate the Government's determination to ensure the quality of our capital market and also to explain to the public the action taken by the Securities and Futures Commission in the past few months has the full backing of the Government, because it is important to ensure the quality of our market, so as to protect the investors and to maintain international investors' confidence in our market, which in turn will be beneficial to Hong Kong in terms of the competitiveness of our market. Thank you.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Monday, August 14, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:43

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