FINANCIAL Secretary Sir Hamish Macleod's Budget today is not expected to provide many surprises, with most taxes unchanged or increasing by the rate of inflation.
''It will be a dull budget,'' said Coopers & Lybrand partner Tim Lui, summarising the viewpoints of many awaiting Sir Hamish's third financial statement.
Perhaps the most interesting issue promises to be the size of the 1993-94 surplus.
The figure is estimated at between $8 billion and $20 billion, compared with Sir Hamish's original forecast of a $3.36 billion deficit.
In the 1992 budget, Sir Hamish predicted a surplus of $7.5 billion, but under-spending saw it blow out to $20.5 billion.
It is expected Sir Hamish will try for another deficit budget. Last year, he set the deficit at $16.6 billion in 1994-95, $13.29 billion in 1995-96 and $7.9 billion in 1996-97.
A cut in the 17.5 per cent corporate profits tax has been called for to assure investors that Hong Kong is a low-tax centre, but it is unlikely as a one percentage point cut would cost $2 billion in revenue.
