Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) passed Wednesday the Revenue Bill 2006, to implement two tax relief measures tabled in the 2006-07 Budget that could save taxpayers up to 2.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 348.39 million U.S. dollars).

The first measure lowers the marginal rates of the second, third and top tax bands by 1 percent from the existing levels of 8 percent, 14 percent and 20 percent, while the standard rate will remain unchanged.

The concession granted on reduced marginal tax rates will take effect from the 2006-07 assessment year and are forecast to cost the HKSAR government 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 193.55 million U.S. dollars) in a full year.

The second measure is to extend the limit for deduction for home loan interest from 7 to 10 years, subject to the maximum annual deduction of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 12,903 million U.S. dollars).

The concession extended for interest deduction will take effect from the 2005-06 assessment year and is estimated to cost 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 154.84 million U.S. dollars) in 2006-07.

Source: Xinhua