Financial Secretary John Tsang estimates the Government's revenue for 2015-16 will be $457 billion with expenditure of $427 billion, resulting in a $30 billion surplus.
Delivering his 2016-17 Budget today, Mr Tsang said revenue was $40 billion or 4.2% lower than the original estimate, reflecting mainly the $45 billion provided for the Housing Reserve.
Land sale revenue is lower than the original estimate because some sites could not be disposed of as scheduled. Revenue from salaries tax, profits tax and stamp duty was higher than the original estimate.
Expenditure was $14 billion lower than the original estimate, mainly because the Finance Committee may not be able to approve the proposed $10 billion endowment to the Hospital Authority for public-private partnership initiatives in 2015-16.
The Government’s recurrent expenditure for 2016-17 is $347.5 billion, reflecting a 6.7% increase over the revised estimate for 2015-16, while expenditure is estimated to be $486.9 billion, a 14% year-on-year increase.
Total government revenue for 2016-17 is estimated to be $498.3 billion, of which land revenue is estimated to be $67 billion.
The Government predicts Hong Kong's economic growth this year will slow to 1% to 2%, compared to 2.4% GDP growth last year. Mr Tsang noted that the Government’s financial position over the medium term remains sound.
The civil service establishment is expected to expand by 2,223 posts to 178,495 in 2016-17, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%.
