The city’s fiscal reserves can dry up in 20 years and turn our budget surplus to a deficit due to government spending and an ageing population, Financial Secretary John Tsang warns.
Leung’s policy address will devote most of the HK$20 billion it plans to spend per year on welfare, such as allowances for low-income families and initiatives to encourage people to work. While some praised these measures, many criticised this move.
According to Tsang, implementing this recurrent spending can be difficult to cut by snowballing with inflation and other factors. When that happens, our reserves will be used up to maintain public expenditure and eventually taxes may have to be increased.
Source: SCMP
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
