Financial chief Paul Chan Mo-po handed out fewer sweeteners in the annual budget announced on Wednesday, with the one-off measures totaling HK$11.5 billion - smaller than the HK$59.4 billion in the last budget. The government will also not pay the examination fees for school candidates sitting the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination in 2025. Meanwhile, recipients of social security benefits, including the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, Old Age Allowance, Old Age Living Allowance, Disability Allowance and Working Family Allowance will receive an allowance equal to half the standard monthly rate of their benefits. We have a few years' budget deficit, this year it's going to be a deficit again,"So there are certain limitations as to the room within which we can hand out those sweeteners. "We think it's appropriate for us to still give some relief support, but we have to scale it back, a little bit," Chan added.

Source: The Standard February 28, 2024 21:00 UTC