This year's budget features the biggest government spending since the handover. Total expenditure for the coming year is estimated to reach HK$371.1 billion, 22 per cent up on the previous year. Some HK$43.5 billion will be spent on improving people's livelihood, more than double that of last year. No one can deny it's a very generous budget.
Before the budget, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah had insisted that there would be no sweeteners to help people cope with the rising cost of living. Even though he has handed out billions of dollars of sweeteners, the budget still lags behind the expectations of most Hongkongers, and hence has attracted widespread criticism.
The problem is that our government has still not adapted to the new political climate and changing times, or recognised that officials are accountable to the public.
Tsang has been heavily criticised after splashing out on public spending to alleviate the impact of inflation and offering handouts to poorer citizens. The problem is that most of our officials, Tsang included, are suffering from a civil-service mentality.
To be honest, the government will never please everyone in society no matter how much it puts aside for public spending, unless it copies Macau and Singapore by handing out cash directly to citizens. People will always complain about the inadequacy of government assistance.
To make amends, the best way is through the Community Care Fund proposed in the policy address last year. The fund is meant to enhance the existing social security system and look after those who have fallen outside the social security safety net. It will help promote social justice and harmony, while reducing social conflict as well as anti-rich sentiment. The city's tycoons have shown great interest in contributing to the fund, which shows they want to fulfil their social responsibility to help the underprivileged. It fits the government's policy idea of a people-centred society.
Unfortunately, the government has been dragging its feet in making the fund a reality. The government should expedite the process. The governing committee for the fund has somehow distorted the original concept by proposing to give HK$10 billion to the Monetary Authority for investment and then take the interest that the fund generates, which is about HK$500 million per year, to help the poor.