To better serve the public and the motor vehicle trading industry, Hong Kong Customs will launch the online Motor Vehicles First Registration Tax (FRT) System tomorrow (November 28).
"Simple and user-friendly for operating, the FRT system will offer complete electronic services for the motor vehicle trade and members of the public in submitting applications and relevant documents, saving the public and the trade's time and trouble of making applications in person to the Customs office," a Customs spokesman said today (November 27).
"Under the new system, motor vehicle traders can make online applications to become registered importers or distributors, request for tax assessment of motor vehicles, as well as electronic filing of Import Return and other documents required for vehicle registration by the Transport Department," the spokesman said.
"With system interface with the Transport Department, the Customs will be able to process different types of application in parallel, such as Import Return and tax assessment. This will cut down the processing time for various applications. For example, in the case of Notification of Provisional Taxable Value, the processing time will be substantially reduced from five days to two days.
"The system will also offer electronic services to members of the public for personal import of vehicles and related tax assessments. The public can also access information on the approved retail prices of motor vehicles via the system which will enhance price transparency and consumer protection," he said.
The FRT system also has the advantage that users will know about the application progress or results quickly as they will be notified via the system as well as through the Short Message Service (SMS), the spokesman noted.
To enable the trade to become familiar with the new system, there will be a parallel run of the semi-electronic mode and the new system for six months until May 31, 2012 before the semi-electronic mode is to be phased out.
Traders and members of the public can access the new system at the Customs website:www.customs.gov.hk. For enquiries, please call the Customs' Motor Vehicles Valuation Group at 3759 2556/3759 2560.
Ends/Sunday, November 27, 2011