Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Prof KC Chan has expressed regret that the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2016 could not be passed by the Legislative Council today, saying he hopes it is passed when it meets again next week.
Prof Chan said this after LegCo failed to resume the Second Reading debate on the bill due to lack of quorum, describing it as a surprise as the bill has broad support.
He said the bill as very important as it lays down the groundwork for Hong Kong to engage in automatic exchange of tax information with other jurisdictions, so it must be passed before LegCo adjourns.
"It's important for us to pass the bill so we will give the financial institutions time to set up a system and it also allows us to begin negotiations with other jurisdictions before the end of this year, so we can collect information in 2017 in order to fulfil our international obligations to engage in exchange in 2018," he said.
"So Hong Kong has a very tight schedule. I think LegCo members understand."
Asked about the possible impact of Brexit on Hong Kong's market, Prof Chan said it is inevitable as Hong Kong is part of the international market.
"So whenever there is any type of reallocation of assets, such as what we are seeing now because of the financial uncertainty causing asset managers to go into safer assets, it will undoubtedly affect Hong Kong's financial market because we are a part of the global market."
