Ageing population tops Tsang's budget agenda
As financial secretary appoints strategy group on public finances for the elderly, his HK$33 billion relief-measure package gets a cool reception
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah turned his sights to the future in his sixth budget.
He pledged to deal with the financial challenges posed by an ageing population while offering a HK$33 billion package of one-off fiscal relief measures.
In the first budget of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's administration, Tsang said the package of 11 relief measures would ease pressure on the middle class, grass-roots families and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The measures include salaries and profits tax rebates of up to HK$10,000, more generous allowances for parents and an extra month's cash for recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance.
But the budget received a cool response from lawmakers, economists and the public, who criticised it as being too conservative, lacking in focus and not going far enough to address short-term problems such as rising living costs.
Tsang said a working group consisting of academics and experts in the field would "make comprehensive plans for public finances" to deal with the ageing population. He cited projections that the city would have only two workers for every dependent elderly person in 20 years - from a ratio of 10 to one in the 1980s.