The government might announce cuts in welfare payments in April, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food said yesterday.
But expanding on Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's policy address, Yeoh Eng-kiong insisted that any adjustment to Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) payments would be linked to the deflation rate.
'In July, we told the Legislative Council we would freeze CSSA payments until we came up with a decision [whether to adjust the payment] next financial year. So it [the decision] will be made in April at the earliest,' Dr Yeoh said.
The welfare chief warned that Hong Kong could no longer rely on existing tax revenue to sustain increasingly hefty spending on CSSA payments.
'There has been a huge increase in the number of CSSA cases over the past five years so it is impossible to make a very generous payment out of the existing low tax rates and narrow tax base,' he said.
'Our CSSA scheme provides only a basic safety net for the needy instead of giving out a generous amount.