Invest HK$64 billion budget surplus in youth, pan-democrats urge Tsang

Pan-democrat lawmakers today urged Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah to dip into the city’s HK$63.8 billion budget surplus to invest in the future.

While HK$34 billion of relief measures announced by the finance chief yesterday won some praise during a Legislative Council finance committee hearing, Democratic Party lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing said Tsang should use the huge budget surplus to help students pay for tuition.

“These big sums of [surpluses and reserves] are Hongkongers’ money. Why don’t you invest more money to provide subsidised degrees for our young people … who bear large loans after graduation?” she said.

“Don’t just give out sweeteners, but do something for Hong Kong in the long-term.”

Tsang was applauded, however, for liberal comments about the city’s youth. Pro-establishment lawmaker Lam Tai-fai said Tsang’s remarks would repair some of the damage done by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s criticism of students in last month’s policy address.

Tsang dedicated a paragraph of his budget speech to the younger generation in the post-Occupy era, saying they were “hungering for spiritual contentment”. He also called on society to resolve conflicts through conversation, not confrontation.

Lam, a critic of Leung, described Tsang’s speech as “inspiring, beautiful and touching” and said it would boost the government’s popularity.

Tsang again brushed off suggestions that there was a rift between him and Leung, reiterating that he respected the chief executive’s remarks and adding that it was normal for people to reflect their views in different ways.

Earlier, Tsang defended his plan to lend money to owners of subsidised flats in an effort to boost the supply of affordable housing.

The Mortgage Corporation will consider giving loans to Home Ownership Scheme flat owners to pay the premiums for selling or letting their property under a plan announced in the budget – a move the government hopes will lead to a bigger supply of housing since some owners find it difficult to pay the fees.

READ MORE: For all the latest budget news and analysis, click here

Tsang faced criticism for the scheme however when he took calls from the public on a joint radio phone-in programme this morning, hosted by RTHK, Commercial Radio, Metro and DBC.

“Some people rent out their flats illegally by leasing to people that are close to them, so the rent would not be too high,” a caller named Mrs Chu said.

“But if you legalise it, there will only be more customers and the rent will increase crazily … This is helping people to speculate on their property.”

Tsang dismissed her concerns.

“This [policy] is not a perk or charity project. If you need money to pay for the land premium, the interest rate would be the same as the market. It’s no different from borrowing money from the banks,” he said, adding that the government would not hesitate to take action to keep the property market stable.

The HK$34 billion of budget relief measures include a salary tax rebate capped at HK$20,000 and the waiving of rates for the owners of 3.1 million properties for the first two quarters. But some callers complained about the scrapping of electricity bill subsidies and no increase in allowances for dependent parents.

Tsang insisted the budget did not favour the middle class, saying it also benefits other sectors in society. He called on people to not only look at the relief measures, but the budget as a whole, since government spending in the coming year has increased by some 11 per cent compared with the last financial year.

He also said when he designed the basket of relief measures he had to take into account a number of factors, and introducing one-off measures was more flexible for the government.

“The basket has achieved its purpose. It may not be perfect, as there are other voices for different things, but this is a balanced basket,” he said.

In his budget speech, Tsang used the term “Hongkongers” six times, while prior to the release of the budget, the financial secretary also set up a Facebook account.

When asked if the moves were intended to win the hearts of teenagers, Tsang said the chief executive had encouraged officials to use more social media.

“We should be proud of being a Hongkongers,” Tsang said.

Of 529 Hongkongers asked by the University of Hong Kong’s public opinion programme on their satisfaction with the budget, 45 per cent said they were “quite satisfied” or “very satisfied”.

Another 28 per cent answered “half-half”, while 18 per cent were “not quite satisfied” or “very dissatisfied”. The rest said it was hard to say.

Asked how they would vote if they had the right to cast ballots on the reappointment or dismissal of Tsang as the financial chief, 58 per cent of 602 people wanted him to be reappointed.

Some 14 per cent wanted Tsang to be dismissed and the rest abstained.