Wine Tax

上星期有幸出席了一個宴會，飯後跟多位葡萄酒業界人士討論起酒稅問題，我說今年似乎要求減稅的情況沒去年那麼熱烘烘，但他們卻明示/暗示今年再大有機會減稅，原因是：

1. 業界已多次提出減稅要求，否則香港葡萄酒業很難成為亞太區的交易中心；
2. 澳門大有可能會完全撤銷葡萄酒稅(現時酒價的15%，香港則為酒價的40%)，若香港不減稅，除了做不成交易中心外，走私問題會日益嚴重；
3. 經濟好，財政有盈餘，可當作還富於民。

可是，以我看香港特區政府的一貫行徑，我則不太樂觀。因為葡萄酒稅由去年酒價的80%大幅減至40%，對於一個如此官僚及保守的政府，連續兩年減稅的機會似乎不大。就算是再減，大概明年才說吧。

希望港府會令我跌一次眼鏡吧！
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After attending a luncheon held last week, I have a chance to discuss views on wine tax in Hong Kong with some industry members. They all reckoned that there will be a great chance for tax cut again this year because:

1. The trade has requested the Government to reduce the tax or else Hong Kong can never be the wine trade centre in the Asian-Pacific Region;
2. Macau will probably eliminate wine tax to encourage trading, which means she will be a strong competitor to Hong Kong if there is no change of the tax rate in Hong Kong. Also, smuggling will be a huge problem; and
3. The economy has been great in 2007, it would be a high time to return the wealth to public.

BUT, from my own point of view, I am not too optimistic for a tax reduction because the tax rate has been reduced from 80% of the price of wine to 40% last year, chances for tax cut in two consecutive years may not be that large for such a bureaucratic and conservative government. They probably think that it would be more appropriate to do so next year.

Again but, I do hope the Government can make a surprise to me.