Increasing Revenue
249. For some time in the past, some government fees and charges have not been adjusted in accordance with the established mechanisms. As a result, these fees and charges are not pegged to their costs and fail to reflect the "user pays" principle. I am going to introduce the following measures:
| (a) | the rate of air passenger departure tax will be increased from $120 to $200 per passenger starting from the third quarter of 2025‑26. It is anticipated that government revenue will increase by about $1.6 billion per year. The impact on air passengers is expected to be minimal; |
| (b) | an application fee of $600 will be charged under various talent and capital investor admission schemes with immediate effect. The visa fees, to be charged based on the duration of limit of stay, will be raised to $600 or $1,300. It is estimated that government revenue will increase by about $620 million per annum; |
| (c) | the Government has cancelled the tolls of some major tunnels and strategic routes three years ago and the tolls of some Government tunnels have not been adjusted for over 30 years. Considering the fact that the Government has invested heavily in building these infrastructure, the Transport and Logistics Bureau will review the tolls of relevant government tunnels and trunk roads to embody the "user pays" principle. The Government will also review the annual licence fee for electric private cars, parking meter charges, as well as the fixed penalties for traffic offences for better traffic management. Based on preliminary estimation, the relevant adjustments could generate about $2 billion additional revenue per annum; |
| (d) | we will explore introducing a boundary facilities fee on private cars departing via land boundary control points. Coaches, goods vehicles, etc. will not be affected. Taking a fee of $200 per private car as an example, the measure will bring in revenue of about $1 billion per annum; and |
| (e) | in January 2025, we submitted a bill to LegCo on the implementation of the global minimum tax proposal drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development to address base erosion and profit shifting. We aim to apply the global minimum tax rate of 15 per cent on large multinational enterprise groups with an annual consolidated group revenue of at least EUR 750 million and impose the Hong Kong minimum top‑up tax. Subject to the passage of the bill, the proposal will bring in tax revenue of about $15 billion for the Government annually starting from 2027‑28. |
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