With a bulging HK$138 billion fiscal surplus, Financial Secretary Paul Chan has pledged to adopt “forward-looking and strategic financial management principles” for Hong Kong and relieve people’s burden. Click an icon above to see which budget highlight affects you most.
– Those on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, work incentive transport subsidies or receiving low-income working family allowance will get two months of extra payments at the standard rate
– Basic and additional tax allowances on childcare will be raised from HK$100,000 to HK$120,000, benefiting 335,000 taxpayers and reducing tax revenues by HK$1.31 billion a year
– The Community Care Fund will consider providing short-term relief for low-income households neither living in public housing nor poor enough to qualify for welfare assistance (also known as “N -nothing households”)
– Extend short-term Food Assistance Service for three years to 2020-21
– Inject HK$300 million into the Child Development Fund, benefitting 9,000 grass-roots children
– HK$2.5 billion proposed to set up Student Activity Support Fund to provide support for students with financial needs to participate in learning activities conducive to whole person development
– Salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for 2017-18 will be cut by 75 per cent, subject to a ceiling of HK$30,000. The proposal will benefit 1.88 million taxpayers
– This means a working couple earning HK$700,000 in total with two dependent children will pay about 50 per cent less tax in the 2018-19 year of assessment
– And for those owning property, rates will be waived for the four quarters of 2018-19 subject to a HK$2,500 ceiling cap per quarter for each rateable property
– Tax bands for salaries tax widened from current HK$45,000 to HK$50,000. The number of tax bands will also be increased from four to five
– The marginal tax rates of the five bands adjusted to 2, 6, 10, 14 and 17 per cent respectively, easing the tax burden of 1.34 million taxpayers and reducing tax revenue by HK$4.09 billion a year
– Allowance for maintaining a dependent parent or grandparent aged 60 or above will increase from HK$46,000 to HK$50,000. For a dependent parent or grandparent aged between 55 and 59 it will increase from HK$23,000 to HK$25,000
– HK$1 billion has been set aside for the soon-to-be-set-up Youth Development Commission in the first half of the year
– Around 371,000 needy pupils from pre-primary to post-secondary level will be eligible for a HK$2,000 cash handout to help with their studies.
– The 50,000 students taking the HKDSE exams in 2019 will also have their examination fees covered
– A total of HK$220 million will be allocated by the government to strengthen care for children and disadvantaged youths
– Annual provision of some HK$92 million to strengthen manpower for residential childcare services
– HK$504 million from the Lotteries Fund to launch a three-year pilot scheme to provide social work services in phases for about 150 000 children and their families in all aided childcare centres, kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-childcare centres.
– In light of the spate of recent child abuse cases, more resources will be provided to public sector primary schools to encourage them to strengthen social work and counselling services, with a view to ultimately achieving the target of “one social worker for each school”
– Subvention to NGOs for setting up cyber youth support teams to reach out to high-risk or hidden youths to provide early intervention and support
– District Support Scheme for Children and Youth Development to be enhanced by raising ceiling of cash assistance and increasing the number of quotas for disadvantaged children and youths
– A recurrent provision of HK$1.26 billion and non-recurrent expenditure of about HK$2.23 billion will be implemented on elderly services proposed in the policy address
– Elderly residents will get two extra months of Old Age Allowance, also known as “fruit money”. There is also a one-off increase for elderly health care vouchers (HK$1,000 for each recipient)
– An additional HK$660 million is earmarked to improve rehabilitation services, including for those with disabilities and the mentally handicapped
– The accumulation limit of Elderly Health Care Vouchers will be raised from HK$4,000 to HK$5,000 in 2018 to allow greater flexibility to user.
– An additional one-off HK$1,000 in vouchers will be provided to eligible elderly persons
– Additional provision of about HK$63 million to provide speech therapy services for elderly service units which will benefit some 22 000 elderly persons with swallowing difficulties or speech impairment
– Providing an on-the-job training allowance of up to HK$4,000 per month for a period of six to 12 months for employers engaging people aged 60 or above who have left the workforce or are unemployed
– Chan pledged to help the city’s 330,000 SMEs grasp economic opportunities and boost their competitiveness
– Apart from 75 per cent relief in profits tax, subject to a HK$30,000 cap, SMEs are expected to benefit from HK$1.5 billion injected into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales and another HK$1 billion added to the SME Export Marketing and Development Fund
– Extension of the application period for the special concessionary measures under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme to February 28, 2019
– HK$250 million in additional funding to the Trade Development Council for assisting local enterprises – SMEs in particular – in seizing opportunities from the Belt and Road Initiative and the Bay Area development
– To enhance support for the ethnic minorities, the chief secretary will set up a steering committee to coordinate, review and monitor work. HK$500 million has been earmarked to strengthen support for ethnic minorities