[Financial Budget 2023/Electronic Consumer Coupons/Pay Sugar/Chen Maobo/Tax Reduction/Deduction/Rate Reduction/Tax Allowance] Financial Secretary Chen Maobo announced a new budget today (22nd), which mentioned that this year The deficit is as high as 140 billion yuan, which is 1.5 times higher than the original budget.
The government expects to continue to record deficits in 2023/24, which will be the fifth consecutive year of fiscal deficits.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said that the Hong Kong economy was hit by the epidemic last year, and at the same time global central banks vigorously tightened monetary policies, which seriously weakened the external economic momentum and affected the local economic situation.
The government's revenue is not as expected, and the profits tax revenue for this financial year will be lower than originally estimated.
Weakness in the stock market and property market has resulted in less stamp duty revenue than expected, and the weakness in the property market has also affected land premium revenue.
Coupled with the introduction of the "2022 Employment Support" plan after the announcement of last year's budget, as well as the large expenditures involved in the prevention and control of the epidemic last year, the financial situation of this fiscal year is worse than expected.
Although the government has saved part of the epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic expenditures in response to the decline of the epidemic, it is estimated that it will still record a deficit of about 140 billion yuan, which is higher than the original budget of about 56 billion yuan, and fiscal reserves will drop to about 820 billion yuan. s level.
Government revenue revised budget 15.7% lower
The revised budget for government revenue in 2022/23 is 603.8 billion yuan, which is 15.7% lower than the original budget, or 112.1 billion yuan. The main reason is that the revenue from land prices and stamp duties are both lower than expected.
Due to the introduction of large-scale counter-cyclical measures and the huge expenditure involved in the prevention and control of the epidemic, the revised budget for the overall government expenditure in 2022/23 is 809.6 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 16.8% compared with the previous year, and the proportion of the relative nominal GDP is also It rose to 28.6%, 0.3% higher than the original budget, or 2.3 billion yuan.
The government expects a consolidated deficit of $139.8 billion in 2022/23.
Fiscal reserves are expected to be 817.3 billion yuan at the end of March this year.
Looking forward to 2023/24, the annual deficit is expected to be 54.4 billion yuan, and fiscal reserves will also drop to 762.9 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 12 months of government expenditure.
What tax cuts are in the new Budget?
Financial Secretary Chen Maobo announced that the salaries tax and personal income tax for the year of assessment 2022/23 will be reduced by 100%, with a ceiling of $6,000.
What other measures to distribute sugar to benefit the people in the new budget?
In addition to reducing the 100% salaries tax and personal income tax for the 2022/23 tax year, the Hong Kong government will distribute $5,000 electronic consumer coupons to eligible citizens and reduce the rates for the first two quarters of 2023/24. Residential properties With a cap of $1,000 per household per quarter, and the extension of the "Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme" until October this year, etc.
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