Financial Secretary Paul Chan today said the Government will allocate resources to improve and enhance public services.

Delivering the Budget 2019-20, Mr Chan introduced a series of relief measures, including reducing salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for 2018-19 by 75%, subject to a ceiling of $20,000, benefitting 1.91 million taxpayers. This will reduce government revenue by $17 billion.

The Government will cut profits tax for 2018-19 by 75%, subject to a ceiling of $20,000, benefitting 145,000 taxpayers and reducing government revenue by $1.9 billion.

It will waive rates for four quarters of 2019-20, subject to a ceiling of $1,500 per quarter for each rateable property, to benefit 3.29 million properties, reducing government revenue by $15 billion.

Mr Chan said an extra month's allowance will be made to recipients of Comprehensive Social Security, Old Age, Old Age Living or Disability Allowances, involving an additional spending of about $3.84 billion.

Similar arrangements will apply to Working Family Allowance and Work Incentive Transport Subsidy recipients, involving an extra spending of about $149 million.

To support learning, the Government will offer each student in need a $2,500 one-off grant and pay the examination fees for school candidates sitting for the 2020 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.

For the elderly, Mr Chan said an additional $1,000 worth of vouchers to those eligible for the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme will be provided on a one-off basis, with the accumulation limit of vouchers to be raised from $5,000 to $8,000.

Optimising resources

The finance chief said this year’s Budget adheres to the current-term Government’s new fiscal philosophy of adopting forward-looking and strategic financial management principles to invest for Hong Kong and relieve people’s burden on the premise of ensuring healthy public finances.

Since taking office, the current-term Government has launched a series of measures to improve people’s livelihood, he said.

The operating expenditure for 2018-19 went up 17.2% while total government expenditure 14.2%.

Mr Chan said the new financial year’s operating expenditure will further increase 15.4%, demonstrating the Government’s determination to optimise the use of resources, develop the economy and improve people’s livelihood.

Public expenditure will account for about 22% of Hong Kong’s GDP during the five-year period up to 2023-24 in the Medium Range Forecast, he added.