{"id":16640,"date":"2018-03-01T15:41:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T12:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/budget-2018-pro-democracy-lawmakers-say-budget-perpetuates-wealth-gap-and-offers-little-for-the-poor\/"},"modified":"2018-03-01T15:41:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T12:41:59","slug":"budget-2018-pro-democracy-lawmakers-say-budget-perpetuates-wealth-gap-and-offers-little-for-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/budget-2018-pro-democracy-lawmakers-say-budget-perpetuates-wealth-gap-and-offers-little-for-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2018: Pro-democracy lawmakers say budget \u2018perpetuates wealth gap\u2019 and offers little for the poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro-democracy lawmakers have criticised Financial Secretary Paul Chan for failing to provide cash handouts to Hongkongers and for \u201cperpetuating the wealth gap\u201d in his latest budget speech.<\/p>\n

Chan gave his second budget speech \u2014 and his first under the Carrie Lam administration \u2014 on Wednesday morning. Amid the announcement of a HK$138 billion surplus<\/a>, a number of tax rebates were announced, with salaries tax, tax under personal assessment, and profits tax all reduced by 75 per cent<\/a> in 2017-18.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Chan. Photo: Catherine Lai\/HKFP.<\/p>\n

People Power\u2019s Ray Chan gave the budget speech a score of zero, saying that many political parties were in favour of cash handouts for all, as opposed to tax rebates.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul Chan calls this \u2018sharing the fruits of success\u2019\u2026 but we see that many people are unable to share these fruits of success,\u201d Ray Chan said at a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He said that tax rebates were unfair and create polarisation in that they benefit those who are at the bottom as well as rich property owners.<\/p>\n

Ray Chan added that those who were living on minimum wage and pay little tax to begin with will not benefit at all from the budget speech: \u201cThis will only increase frustration in society\u2026 young people also do not get anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"budget<\/p>\n

Photo: Catherine Lai\/HKFP.<\/p>\n

Neighbourhood and Worker\u2019s Service Centre lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung also said the plan did not receive a pass mark and said that he will vote against the budget speech when it arrives at the legislature for approval.<\/p>\n

Leung said that the speech \u201cperpetuated the wealth gap,\u201d and that it did not care for the needs of the grassroots. He also said that the government did not propose any solutions to the issue of an ageing population.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a member of the working class, there\u2019s no good news at all,\u201d Leung said.<\/p>\n