NewsHong Kong

Tsang defends budget measures as prudent

Saturday, 02 March, 2013, 3:08pm

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said on Saturday he had to be fiscally prudent when developing the economic policies he announced in last Wednesday’s budget.

Tsang told RTHK programme Hong Kong Letter that extravagant economic policies would fail in the long-term.

“If I spent money extravagantly for the sake of popularly, not only would our generation suffer, but also the next generation,” he said.

Tsang added that fiscal prudence was the principal responsibility of the financial secretary and he had to ensure taxpayers’ money was used in the right areas.

Tsang also said he was “not disappointed” with negative feedback from the public - even people saying the budget lacked new ideas.

“New ideas are not my primary concern. It does not matter if our measures are old, but are able to help the needy and move the city forward,” he told Commercial Radio.

He noted that government expenditure had increased more than 10 per cent in the coming year. “[Such an increase] is rare globally,” explained Tsang.

 

Comments

PDB1688
Mr John Tsang
HK$900 billion minus HK$800 billion equals:
a) HK$100 billion ?
b) minus HK$3.5 billion ?
What is lacking in your department ? New batteries for your calculators or high-school kid level arithmetic ?
( Seems both are lacking)
Please read Tom Holland's and Jake van der Kamp's columns these past few days. Seems that between the two of them they have more financial know-how, vision, and basic economics than all the staff in your over-paid budget department put together ( not to mention 10 x more common sense!)
Please, PLEASE resign before the 2014 budget.
I cannot stand another ground-hog day of such idiocy
PS : Whatever happened to fixing our air pollution problems, as promised by CY and Christine Loh, before we have Beijing -scale smogs every day ? You earn HK$300K + p.m, and drink coffee and watch french movies, but whatever "class" you class yourself under ( top !? upper ? middle ?? lower ???) you have to breathe the same filthy air as the lowest of low classes.
Welcome to the huge lower class club who comprise most of HK
mrlcooper
His forecast was once again billions out and stupidly pessimistic. Hong Kong is awash with money and he either sits on it or throws it a bit wildly at the last moment. Expats like me get tax breaks and there are still people living in cage flats and 70 year olds pushing carts around. And this clown earns 300k a month!

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