Why middle class benefits little from budget relief

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah delivered his sixth budget speech on February 27, 2013, in which he unveiled HK$33 billion worth of relief measures and forecasted a surplus of about HK$64.9 billion for the 2012-13 financial year. The middle class will benefit from a "one-off" basket of relief measures, with more than 1.5 million taxpayers receiving a salaries tax rebate of up to HK$10,000. Tsang said the measures were intended to help middle-class families, but Lawrence Leung Kwan, a management consultant and sole breadwinner for a family of four, said they would have little impact.