Solutions sought: Financial Secretary Henry Tang says the Government will resolve the technical problems and introduce the Revenue (Abolition of Estate Duty) Bill 2005 to the Legislative Council for second reading debate in October.

The resumption of the second reading of the Revenue (Abolition of Estate Duty) Bill 2005 has been deferred in light of the opposition from lawmakers.

However, Financial Secretary Henry Tang says the Government will resolve the technical problems and introduce the bill to the Legislative Council for second reading debate and third reading in October when the council resumes following the summer break.

The Legislative Council's House Committee today passed a motion to object to the resumption of the second reading of the bill on July 6.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang said the Government respected lawmakers' views adding it will resolve the technical problems that triggered their reservations in the coming months.

Lawmakers' reservation concerns timetable

Speaking to the press today, Mr Tang said the purpose of the abolition is to enhance Hong Kong's position as an international financial centre and strengthen the wealth management and asset management business.

"The House Committee has reservations regarding the timetable being too tight. I can understand why they have such reservations because our original intention is upon the abolition of the estate duty, many of the functions for the probate can be done by either the lawyers, accountants or bankers," Mr Tang said.

"But in this case, during the bills committee stage, many of the members felt that these functions should continue to be performed by the Government. We have accepted those proposals and suggestions and therefore the timing became very tight."

No material difference

Mr Tang said the Government will deal with the technical problems in the next several months and then introduce the bill to LegCo for second reading debate and third reading.

"It will make no material difference to the community and the industry because it will have retrospective effect back to July."