budget2024
A marine pyrotechnic display will take place across Victoria Harbour during next Wednesday’s May Day public holiday, kicking off a campaign of monthly fireworks shows to boost tourism, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has announced. In a statement released on Thursday, the HKTB said the fireworks show will begin at 8pm on Labour Day near the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. The theme will be the colour gold, showcasing the initials “HK” and a smiley face. The government announced during the 2024 Budget that some HK$1.09 billion had been allocated to boost tourism, with the HKTB hosting monthly firew...
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government has announced it will cut funding for major NGOs starting from 2025 amid two straight years of budget deficits over HK$100 billion. Labour and welfare chief Chris Sun told reporters on Thursday the cutback would affect 59 large NGOs which currently received more than HK$50 million per year each, local media reported. Funding for each affected group will be reduced by two per cent for the fiscal year 2025-26 and further decreased by three per cent for 2026-27. Another 118 mid-sized and small NGOs will not be affected. “We’ve considered it thoroughly. While our financial...
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong Police Force have been allocated a record HK$27.8 billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year, 9.2 per cent higher than the previous financial year. The latest budget is over 40 per cent higher than that of 2018-19, which was HK$19.6 billion. The largest portion of expenditure, according to the proposed 2024-25 budget published by the government on Wednesday, would be allocated to the “maintenance of law and order in the community,” at a cost of over HK$13 billion. In addition, HK$165 million is earmarked for “rewards and special services,” which is used to arrange police informers, loca...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s finance chief has defended plans for monthly fireworks shows that would cost HK$1 million each and are intended to entice tourists to stay longer in the city. Responding to residents in a Cantonese televised phone-in programme on Thursday morning, including one who suggested focusing on big-name concerts instead, Paul Chan said having monthly fireworks displays and concerts were not “mutually exclusive,” and tourists could schedule their stays around the fireworks. That would entice visitors to “stay an extra night,” he said. Responding to a caller’s concerns over whether the novel...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s finance chief has asked for the public’s “understanding” over a lack of sweeteners in this year’s budget, as a lawmaker said he was disappointed that the annual speech did not address societal problems. The Secretary for Finance Paul Chan said in a press conference on Wednesday that given the city’s “financial situation,” authorities were unable to offer more benefits for residents this year. Hong Kong is expected to log a deficit of HK$101.6 billion in the fiscal year ending in March, almost double Chan’s earlier estimate. “I hope everyone understands that because of the financial...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hongkongers will not receive perks such as consumption vouchers as the government scaled back one-off relief measures offered to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic. Finance chief Paul Chan did not mention the consumption voucher scheme when he unveiled tax cuts and other relief measures for residents while delivering his annual budget speech to the legislature on Wednesday. Salaries and profits tax is set to be reduced by 100 per cent, subject to a ceiling of HK$3,000, which is half of last year’s HK$6,000. The proposal would benefit 2.05 million taxpayers and reduce government revenue by...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong will push forward with a plan to create artificial islands off Lantau Island despite a lagging timetable, finance chief Paul Chan has said. Chan told reporters on Wednesday afternoon – after delivering his budget address for the 2024-25 fiscal year – that reclamation for the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands project, which was originally slated to begin in 2025, would be delayed by “a little.” Its development would also “lag behind” that of the Northern Metropolis – another project intended to provide more than tens of thousands of homes and jobs by integrating development projects in t...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong will review two transport subsidy schemes that have resulted in significant expenditure over the years, the finance chief has said as he predicted a deficit of over HK$100 billion for the current fiscal year. Addressing lawmakers during the annual budget speech on Wednesday, Secretary for Finance Paul Chan said government departments would review the transport concessions for the elderly and disabled, as well as the rebate scheme for commuters, to ensure that the government could continue to offer the benefits in a “financially sustainable manner.” The “HK$2 scheme,” named for the fl...
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government has proposed bringing back a three per cent tax on hotel accommodation almost 16 years after it was scrapped. If implemented, the levy could earn the government HK$1.1 billion annually. Hong Kong plans to resume charging the Hotel Accommodation Tax at a rate of three per cent starting from January 1, 2025, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Wednesday as he delivered the budget for the next financial year. The tax would account for less than one per cent of the spending of overnight visitors in Hong Kong, the minister said, while generating income of around HK$1.1 bi...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s economy grew by 3.2 per cent in 2023 after the city lifted stringent Covid-19 restrictions, but the “difficult external environment” continued to limit the pace of growth, the city’s finance chief has said. Economic activity in Hong Kong showed an immediate improvement after anti-epidemic measures were axed early last year, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Wednesday when he presented the annual budget for the next fiscal year in the legislature. The income of the general public grew last year, Chan said, while private consumption expenditure increased by 7.3 per cent with the ...
Hong Kong Free Press
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