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Denise Tsang

The government's more generous than expected budget sweeteners have cheered the middle class, the poor, small businesses and even property developers.
Announcing handouts worth HK$34.2 billion, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said he was aiming to alleviate "the financial burden on the public", in a bid to heal a society scarred by political conflict.
This year's budget focused its attention on the middle class - which was largely ignored last year - in addition to the poor and small and medium-sized enterprises. Developers were spared new measures to cool the property market.
Credit Suisse said the middle class were the "key beneficiaries" of the government handouts. The cap on salaries tax rebates has been doubled to HK$20,000 and child allowances raised to HK$100,000 from HK$70,000.
Recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and other welfare programmes for the elderly and disabled were given an extra month's worth of allowances, to bring the total to two months.

But stockbroker Francis Lun Sheung-nim, who will see his tax bill come down, called for action to deal with the housing crisis.
"Still, the government should spare no resources and effort in building 500,000 public housing units to resolve the problem of housing," he said.
A host of SMEs saw their licence fees waived for six months in compensation for the impact of the Occupy movement.
Analysts said the handouts were possible thanks to the government's HK$63.8 billion surplus, driven by a windfall from extra stamp duties to cool the housing market. The surplus has also strengthened Hong Kong's financial muscle and safeguarded its credit rating amid what Tsang described as an uncertain global economic outlook.
The city's fiscal reserves will be HK$820 billion by the end of March, equivalent to 25 months of government expenditure. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said it expected the government to control spending, protect its revenue base and save appropriately. "We expect such a strategy to keep Hong Kong's fiscal reserves above 30 per cent of GDP over the next five years," it said. "This provides the government with a strong capacity to mitigate the impact of economic cycles on its creditworthiness."
 


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Hong Kong Budget 2015-2016

John Tsang's budget giveaways fuelled by government's huge surplus

The budget included handouts for welfare recipients as well as the middle class and small businesses. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The budget included handouts for welfare recipients as well as the middle class and small businesses. Photo: Ricky Chung

Financial Secretary John Tsang 'must focus on long-term challenges' for Hong Kong

Financial Secretary John Tsang said little in the budget to tackle a potential structural deficit within the next decade, academics said. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

John Tsang surprised many with the scale of handouts he revealed, but the government can afford to be generous thanks to a huge surplus


The government's more generous than expected budget sweeteners have cheered the middle class, the poor, small businesses and even property developers.


Focus