Hong Kong budget gift: restaurants, hotels, travel agents and hawkers to have licence fees waived for one year
Hong Kong’s finance chief aims relief measures at industries suffering in economic downturn
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah will waive licence fees for travel agents, restaurants, hotels and hawkers for one year when he unveils his budget speech on Wednesday.
The relief measure aims at helping industries affected by the economic downturn.
Tsang used last year’s budget speech to announce a HK$180 million package of relief measures targeting industries hit by the Occupy protests.
Licence fees for travel agents, hotels and guest houses, drivers, restaurants and hawkers were waived for six months.
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While the duration of the relief package will be longer than that for the sectors hit by the 79-day protest movement in 2014, a government source said the transport sector, which was covered in last year’s scheme, would not benefit in the latest move.
The relief measures target these industries because they provide a substantial number of job opportunities for workers with low education attainment and level of skills
Tsang said last month he was studying ways to help the tourism industry and small and medium enterprises to survive the economic downturn.
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The number of visitors declined 2.5 per cent last year compared with 2014, the first drop since 2004, with tourists from the mainland and overseas down 2.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.
“The relief measures target these industries because they provide a substantial number of job opportunities for workers with low education attainment and level of skills,” the source said.
The likes of the retail sector will be given a boost by the announcement of a tax rebate. The move should stimulate domestic consumption, the source said.
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Meanwhile, the fiscal surplus to be pocketed by the government in the current financial year is expected to be close to the HK$36.8 billion estimated by Tsang in last year’s budget.
But the total will discount HK$45.1 billion in investment income from the fiscal reserves to be set aside for the so-called housing reserve, which will be used to help meet the government’s goal of building 290,000 public housing flats in the next decade.
Taken together with the HK$45.1 billion earmarked for the housing teserve, the actual surplus would be significantly higher than Tsang’s original estimate.
Accountants have been predicting a surplus of up to HK$95 billion.
