A budget reporting gross domestic product growth last year of 6.8 per cent, unemployment contained at 3.8 per cent, a handsome fiscal surplus of HK$71 billion and financial reserves of some HK$600 billion should be the envy of many financial ministers. Yet Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's plan to distribute some HK$40 billion - injecting HK$24 billion to the Mandatory Provident Fund and other occupational retirement scheme accounts, with each account-holder getting HK$6,000, plus another HK$19.6 billion in one-off relief measures - unexpectedly attracted a social uproar.
So much attention was given to this single controversy that some small 'good things' were ignored - such as HK$110 million to enlist tertiary students to provide after-school homework guidance for primary pupils from low-income families, and HK$7 billion to set up an athletes development fund.
The double irony is that when Tsang decided to withdraw the MPF injection idea and instead give HK$6,000 to each permanent resident aged 18 and above, the critics then blamed him for not being fiscally prudent. So, what has gone wrong in our budget process?
Some fault him for not having consulted properly. Well, most of the political parties and economists had cautioned him against making any handouts. Yet he found it reasonable to return part of the surplus to the population. Doing it through MPF accounts, tax and rates rebates, and public housing rental exemption, as in the past, cannot reach a wide enough group of ordinary citizens, some of whom do not pay tax or belong to specific targeted relief categories.
The post-budget circumstances have turned volatile. When public agitation led to a demand in society for immediate rebates for all, many legislators vowed not to approve the budget if the government did not offer major concessions.
Hong Kong has moved from a British-style executive-led regime to US-style executive-legislative rivalry. In Britain, the government has a parliamentary majority and there is a long tradition of respecting the chancellor of the exchequer's prerogative in drawing up the budget. In colonial Hong Kong, the financial secretary enjoyed similar supremacy.