I suppose our government gives a damn about her citizens?
FYI, the current Hong Kong government budget. All these perks
come without having to increase any GST, ERP, Electricity, Property
Tax (NAV), etc.
For Singapore, when they give you $200, they will find ways to
squeeze out $400 from you.
Improving People's
Livelihood and Supporting Disadvantaged Groups
To allocate $4.3
billion to inject into each domestic electricity account a subsidy
of $1,800.
To inject $1 billion into the Samaritan Fund
so as to relieve the financial burden on needy patients.
To support and take care of the elderly in
need:
– To earmark $200 million to help elderly people without family
support improve their home environment;
– To earmark $1 billion as a subsidy for the elderly in
need to carry out maintenance or safety improvement works for their
self-occupied properties;
– To conduct studies on how best to improve the Old Age
Allowance Scheme and to reach a decision by the end of this year.
The Government will provide each Old Age Allowance recipient with a
one-off grant of $3,000;
– To increase funding by $60 million to provide additional
places in day care centres, subvented homes and residential care
homes for the elderly.
To provide families and children with additional
support:
– To provide funding of $45 million over the next three
years to strengthen day foster care services and promote child care
services;
– To provide additional funding of $40 million to
strengthen support to victims of domestic violence and families in
need.
To support disabled people:
– To provide additional funding of $100 million to offer
300 more pre-school training places, 450 more day training places
and 490 more subvented residential places;
– To make an additional provision of $35 million to
establish 16 community support centres to strengthen services and
support for disabled people as well as their family members and
caretakers.
To make provision of $1 billion in the
next three years to create 3 000 three-year jobs for young
people.
To set up four support services centres to provide
interpretation services and language courses for members of ethnic
minorities.
To adjust the CSSA payment rates in accordance
with the existing mechanism ahead of the normal schedule this
year.
To provide one additional month of standard rate
CSSA payments for CSSA recipients and one additional month of
allowance for recipients of Disability Allowance. This proposal
will involve an expenditure of about $1.2 billion.
To earmark $1 billion to pay for one-month's rent
for lower income families living in public housing estates.
Leaving Wealth with
the People and Sharing the Fruits of Prosperity
To lower the standard rate of salaries tax
and personal assessment tax by one percentage point to 15%. This is
reversion to the 2002-03 level and will cost the Government $960
million a year.
To offer a one-off rebate of 75% of salaries tax
and tax under personal assessment assessed for 2007-08, subject to
a ceiling of $25,000. This will cost the Government $12.4
billion.
To raise the basic personal allowance and single
parent allowance from $100,000 to $108,000 and to increase the
married person's allowance from $200,000 to $216,000. All the major
allowances will revert to their 2002-03 levels. The child
allowance, allowance for dependent parent/ grandparent will be even
higher than the 2002-03 levels. All these will cost the Government
$1.31 billion.
To widen tax bands from $35,000 to
$40,000, making them wider than those in 2002-03. This will cost
the Government $1 billion.
To lower the profits tax rate by one
percentage point to 16.5%. This will cost the Government $4.4
billion a year.
To offer a one-off rebate of 75% of profits
tax for 2007-08, subject to a ceiling of $25,000. This will cost
the Government $1.73 billion.
To waive business registration fees for
2008-09. This will cost the Government $1.6 billion.
To offer a one-off rebate of 75% of property
tax for 2007-08, subject to a ceiling of $25,000. This will cost
the Government $680 million.
To waive rates for 2008-09, subject to a
ceiling of $5,000 per quarter for each rateable tenement. This will
cost the Government $11.2 billion.
Providing for the Future
To earmark $8.5 billion to provide people
earning not more than $10,000 a month with a one-off injection of
$6,000 into their MPF accounts.
To earmark $50 billion from the fiscal
reserves to promote healthcare reform.
Source: http://www.budget.gov.hk/2008/eng/highlights.html