Housing official rejects calls to exempt charities from stamp duty
Senior housing official rejects calls from lawmakers to exempt charities from property tax introduced to combat market speculation
A senior housing official has ruled out exempting charities from the cooling measures introduced by the government to rein in the city's runaway housing prices.
Lawmakers yesterday argued that it was unfair to impose taxes designed to control property speculation on charity groups because they would be unlikely to take part in such speculation.
But a senior housing official said giving charities preferential treatment would create a "serious risk of abuse".
A Chinese University poll revealed on Wednesday that 43 per cent of the 821 respondents opposed granting an exemption to charities. And 62.6 per cent of those polled supported the government's market-cooling measures.
"We can ask a charity organisation that wants to buy property to make a declaration, promising that it will not resell it to make money," said Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing, who supports an exemption.
"If the public knows that the organisation is speculating on properties, it will hurt its reputation," he said at a bills committee meeting yesterday.
Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said an exemption should be granted if the purchase was for "prescribed charity works".
