FINES for tax evasion, selling alcohol without a licence and possessing firearms are to be raised dramatically under a sweeping review by the Legal Department. Penalties of less than $100,000 are to be increased in line with inflation, affecting dozens of ordinances. All policy branches were asked to submit their proposals on revision by the end of the year. Under the review, a fine fixed in 1975 could be raised by more than three times because, by last year, the consumer price index (A) had increased 331 per cent. The revision will boost government revenue. In 1993-94, $1.04 billion was estimated to be received from court fines, statutory and fixed penalties. Some of the proposed changes are: To raise the maximum fine for selling liquor to minors to $400,000, eight times more than the penalty fixed in 1970; To raise the maximum fine for selling liquor without a licence to $800,000, eight times more than the penalty fixed in 1963. To raise the maximum fine for evading tax by omitting or making false reports of income to $50,000 on indictment and $10,000 on summary conviction, compared to the present $20,000 and $5,000 fixed 10 years ago. To raise the maximum fine for failure to comply with a court order to supply information or to furnish tax returns to $20,000 on summary conviction, compared to $5,000 fixed in 1975. Assistant Principal Crown Counsel, Thomas Law Kwan-wai, said the exercise would be supplementary to a move in July to divide fines under $100,000 into six tiers. Mr Law said: 'It is expected that the exercise will be completed by the end of this year, because the proposed fines level may fail to reflect the inflation effect by the time they become effective if the exercise takes too long.' The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 1994 enables the Executive Council to adjust maximum fines in each tier by means of a single amendment, rather than revising each individual fine under different legislation. The maximum fines for each tier are $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000. Mr Law said to match the amendment, a blanket review of outdated fine provisions was needed to maintain a deterrent. The revised amount would automatically fall into one of the six bands and the maximum fine for the relevant level would be adopted for the offence. Mr Law said the policy branches would also take the chance to review all outdated fixed penalties, although they would be outside the new standard scale of fines.
