Senior civil servants' pay should be cut by 3.5 per cent, a political group has proposed. Legislators Emily Lau Wai-hing and Cyd Ho Sau-lan of The Frontier demanded yesterday that Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen should impose the pay cut on those earning more than $76,000 a month. The plan forms part of proposals the group would like to see enacted in Mr Tsang's next Budget. Ms Lau and Ms Ho said that, with deflation, the reduction would save taxpayers $150 million in the next financial year beginning in April. Fringe benefits and the acting allowance for standing in for colleagues - which cost $600 million in the last financial year - should be reduced and axed respectively, the lawmakers said. To lower the burden of the grassroots, The Frontier said salary tax bills of less than $1,000 should be waived. Other proposals include a progressive profit tax ranging from 10 to 20 per cent and reducing property rates from five per cent to two per cent.
