MANY official company charges could double if the Government's proposed new Companies Registry is to survive as a ''commercial'' semi-autonomous body.
The remainder of the Registrar-General's Department is to be dismantled on April 1 and replaced by a separate Lands Registry and Companies Registry.
Both will be self-supporting bodies, adopting Governor Chris Patten's new spirit of commercialisation within the civil service.
Assuming the Trading Funds Bill is passed by the Legislative Council in the spring, the two bodies are set to become the first government departments to adopt what has been dubbed ''trading fund'' status in Hongkong.
Under the standard system of ''vote-funding'', department expenditure budgets are voted on by Legco.
Under the trading fund system, the two new departments will operate independent accounts, oversee their own spending and be run with some private-sector management style.
However, they will remain accountable to Legco, the Financial Secretary and the Governor, and any large surpluses might be passed over to government coffers as one-off payments.