### Government Rent (Assessment and Collection) Ordinance 《地租(評估及徵收)條例》

11. Government Rent Roll
(1) When directed under section 10, the Commissioner is required to prepare a Government Rent Roll or a part of a Government Rent Roll, as the case may be, containing—
(a) the address or description of every tenement the rateable value of which has been ascertained for the purposes of the Government Rent Roll or the part of the Government Rent Roll, as the case may be, which he is directed to prepare under section 10; and
(b) the rateable value of each of the tenements or the proportion of the rateable value ascertained under section 9 where the tenement is situated partly on land leased under an applicable lease.
(2) A tenement comprised in land leased under an applicable lease and exempted from liability to pay Government rent is not to be included in the Government Rent Roll.
(3) A Government Rent Roll is required to be kept in the form the Commissioner may determine and may, subject to any such determination, be prepared and maintained—
(a) in legible form;
(b) in non-legible form; or
(c) partly in legible form and partly in non-legible form.
(4) The Commissioner is required to sign a declaration when he has completed a Government Rent Roll that the Government Rent Roll contains a true account of the addresses, descriptions and rateable values of the tenements contained in the Government Rent Roll to the best of his knowledge and belief.
(5) The Government Rent Roll comes into force—
(a) for the first Government Rent Roll, on a day the Commissioner specifies by notice in the Gazette;
(b) for subsequent Government Rent Rolls, on 1 April next following the date the Commissioner signs the declaration of the Government Rent Roll.
A Government Rent Roll remains in force until a new Government Rent Roll comes into force.
(6) The Commissioner may at any time add to the Government Rent Roll a tenement omitted from it.
(7) The lessee of an applicable lease, the owner of an interest held under an applicable lease and the owner and occupier of a tenement on the land are taken to be notified of the rateable value of their property by the declaration of the Government Rent Roll and its display under section 13(2).
(8) The omission from the Government Rent Roll of a tenement does not confer any right on the lessee of the applicable lease or the tenement to an exemption from liability to pay Government rent.

### Government Rent (Assessment and Collection) Ordinance 《地租(評估及徵收)條例》

12. Form and proof of Government Rent Roll
(1) For a Government Rent Roll maintained only in non-legible form or partly in legible form and partly in non-legible form—
(a) the Commissioner may make an amendment required or permitted under this Ordinance to the Government Rent Roll in non-legible form; and
(b) the current entry for a tenement in the Government Rent Roll must be able to be reproduced in legible form.
(2) A document purporting to be a copy of or extract from a Government Rent Roll or a record of an amendment purporting to be certified by the Commissioner or a person authorized by him in that behalf is admissible in evidence in any proceedings on its production without further proof, and—
(a) in the absence of evidence to the contrary a court or tribunal before which the document is produced must presume—
(i) that the document is certified by the Commissioner or a person authorized by him in that behalf; and
(ii) that the document is a true copy of or extract from the Government Rent Roll or record to which it refers; and
(b) the document is evidence of all matters contained in it.
(3) Subsection (2) does not prejudice the admissibility of any evidence which would be admissible apart from that subsection.
(4) The Commissioner is required to provide an extract from a Government Rent Roll or a record of an amendment on application by any person in the manner the Commissioner specifies and on payment of the fee determined by the Financial Secretary and published in the Gazette.

13. Inspection of Government Rent Rolls
(1) The Commissioner is required to make available for public inspection a copy of the Government Rent Rolls during normal office hours on every day (not being a public holiday)—
(a) for the first Government Rent Roll, from the day following the declaration of the Roll to 30 September 1997;
(b) for subsequent Government Rent Rolls, in April and May of the year in which each Roll first comes into force.
(2) The Commissioner is required to publish—
(a) in the Gazette; and
(b) in at least one newspaper in the English language and one in the Chinese language, published daily for circulation in Hong Kong,
prior notice of intention to make the Government Rent Rolls available for inspection, and of the place and time at which the Rolls will be displayed for inspection.
(3) Any person may take any extract from the copy of the Government Rent Rolls which is made available for inspection, during the period referred to in subsection (1).
(4) The Commissioner is required to provide information contained in a Government Rent Roll on the address or description and the rateable value of a tenement on application by any person in the manner the Commissioner specifies and on payment of the fee determined by the Financial Secretary and published in the Gazette.

### Government Rent (Assessment and Collection) Ordinance 《地租(評估及徵收)條例》

14. Collection of Government rent
(1) The Commissioner is responsible for the collection of the Government rent in the manner prescribed in the regulations.
(2) The Director may take proceedings to re-enter land if the Government rent for the land has been demanded and remains unpaid even though the Commissioner has not exhausted any other course to recover the rent.

15. Surcharge for late payment
(1) Government rent not paid on or before the due date is in default and the Commissioner may order that not more than 5% of the amount in default be added to the Government rent and be recovered with the Government rent.
(2) The Commissioner may order that not more than 10% of the Government rent in default and any amount added under subsection (1) be added to the amount unpaid if the Government rent or the surcharge remains unpaid for a period of 6 months from the date when the Government rent was first in default.
(3) The Commissioner may seek and recover any arrears of Government rent and any surcharge as a debt due to the Government. The seeking or recovery of Government rent or the imposition, seeking or recovery of a surcharge does not prejudice any rights that the Government may have and does not operate as a waiver of the Government’s right to enforce the lease, including taking re-entry action or forfeiture.
(4) In proceedings to recover Government rent or any surcharge, the court is not to have regard to a plea that the Government rent is not payable, is excessive, incorrect, subject to a proposal or an objection or is under appeal.

16. Provision of proposal, objection and appeal
(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person may object to, make a proposal on, or appeal against, an entry in the Government Rent Roll, including the rateable value ascertained under this Ordinance.
(2) A person may object to, or make a proposal on, or appeal against the rateable value of a tenement recorded in the Government Rent Roll only under the Rating Ordinance (Cap. 116) if the tenement is an identical tenement.