SUPERVISOR Lok Wing-hon was relieved to learn the Financial Secretary's proposals would increase his family's budget.
But Mr Lok, 39, a supervisor at an electronic project firm in Wan Chai, still expects a hard time in the year ahead because he has to start paying mortgage instalments of almost $10,000 a month for the Home Ownership Scheme flat he bought.
The Lok family, who live in a public housing flat in Western District, earn about $20,000 a month. Mrs Lok works at Queen Mary Hospital and they have a nine-year-old son and a 11-year-old daughter.
Mr Lok can expect a reduced tax burden with the increased child allowances. His mother retired last year and reaches 60 soon and thus Mr Lok can expect to enjoy the $22,000 dependent parent allowance this year.
Last year he paid about $13,000 tax. With the cuts he will save about $3,000.
'The tax concessions cannot be said to be very big. But to me, it has already helped a lot.'
