FS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT PUBLIC FINANCE

Financial Secretary Paul Chan today said he is confident that the Government will achieve fiscal balance in the pace that he set out in the Budget.

Addressing young people’s questions during a live programme on Budget Online@M21, Mr Chan outlined the measures he proposed to reach this goal.

“In order to achieve fiscal balance, we have introduced what we call a fiscal consolidation plan. That is, on the one hand, controlling expenditure growth - cutting down expenditure growth to keep it below economic growth, so that expenditure growth will be declining.

“In terms of revenue, we increased for example, the Hotel Accommodation Tax. We introduced differential rates for high income individuals in terms of salaries tax. That contributes to our revenue and in due time, this increase would enable us to return to balance.

“In a nutshell, basically on the operating account, we will be back to balance after two years. On the consolidated account, we will be back to balance in three years’ time. So I am very confident about our public finance.”

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