Hong Kong finance chief set to help the rich, but not spoil the poor
Here we go again. Finance chief John Tsang Chun-wah gets his budget projection all wrong and is now facing an embarrassment of riches.
Here we go again. Finance chief John Tsang Chun-wah gets his budget projection all wrong and is now facing an embarrassment of riches. So what will he do - plan for the future and commit the surpluses to worthwhile projects that would benefit the city and secure its future? Not a chance. He is going to give away, yet again, billions of dollars worth of sweeteners - mostly to the rich and well-off, and some crumbs for the poor and lower middle class.
His original surplus projection was under HK$10 billion, but now, an informed source "close to the government" tells us, he expects an excess of at least HK$60 billion for the current fiscal year. Since he became financial secretary in 2007, he has managed an unbroken record of never getting a single budget projection right.
During his time in office, a paper put out by the Legislative Council's research unit finds he has underestimated revenue by HK$582 billion, excluding the current surplus. So far, he has given away HK$220 billion in sweeteners, and he plans on handing back more than HK$20 billion in his upcoming budget. That's a sum worth repeating - HK$240 billion in all.
Try to wrap your head around that staggering number. Instead of using Hong Kong people's hard-earned money to build better schools and hospitals and enhance welfare, Tsang has consistently warned against overspending. Structural deficits are really, really coming any time now, he has repeatedly told us.
So, we must not commit to new recurrent spending - best to give it away. But who gets the sweeteners? The recent past is a good guide. According to Legco research, 28.7 per cent went to property owners, 23.5 per cent to taxpayers, only 3.9 per cent to low-income groups and another 7.6 per cent to disadvantaged groups.
As if our property developers and super-rich landlords were not wealthy enough from the property bull run, Tsang has lined their pockets time and time again. How much tax do you think our tycoons pay? It's more of the same in Tsang's upcoming budget, which reportedly will, yet again, include a waiver on property rates.
Oh, but a rent waiver for public housing tenants may be scaled back. We must never give too much to the poor, lest they become spoiled.
