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12 things to know about Hong Kong’s budget and how it will affect you
- Immediate scrapping of property curbs, issuing of large amounts of bonds for infrastructure among measures unveiled in finance chief Paul Chan’s budget address
- Fine balancing act amid record government deficit also leads to slashing of scale of one-off relief measures and new or raised taxes
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Hong Kong’s finance chief has unveiled a raft of measures touching on different economic concerns in his eighth budget blueprint. Top of the list was the bold move of scrapping all cooling measures in the property market, and the issuing of large quantities of bonds as a way to finance infrastructure development.
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Sharing his plan at the Legislative Council on Wednesday, Paul Chan Mo-po also sought to strengthen the city’s coffers by slashing the scale of one-off relief measures as well as charging new taxes amid a record government deficit. No surprise too was the conspicuous absence of consumption vouchers, a feature of the past few years.
Here are the 12 things you should know about the latest blueprint.
1. All property cooling measures scrapped with immediate effect
No more buyer’s stamp duty for non-permanent residents, stamp duty for second-time purchasers or special stamp duty for residential property sold within two years.
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