Fines threat for delayed returns

Companies which fail to file their annual returns to the Company Registry face prosecution from April 1.

Directors who fail to file annual returns can be fined a maximum $50,000.

The move was with a view to encouraging companies and their directors to comply with their statutory duties, Registrar of Companies Gordon Jones said yesterday.

He hoped prosecutions would be kept to a minimum.

Only 70 per cent of Hong Kong companies have filed annual returns to the Company Registry, which is lower than the compliance rate of 91 per cent in Britain in 1996-97.