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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s latest budget has been criticised for not going far enough to cut costs to deal with the deficit.
The HK$2,500 (US$321) education subsidy will be scrapped. There will be a cap imposed on the number of monthly trips the elderly can take using the HK$2 fare concession scheme. However, civil servants wages were not cut, just frozen.
The financial secretary says that the deficit for the 2024-25 financial year will be HK$87.2 billion. This could well turn out to be an understatement, but it is still not what many are comfortable with.
Our leverage is that we have sizeable fiscal reserves. Furthermore, our foreign exchange reserves are a handsome US$421.5 billion. Experts seem to think we have more than enough to cope with Hong Kong dollar cash outflows.
In the Analects, Confucius says: “Those who do not plan for the future will face immediate trouble.”
The government plans to cut 10,000 civil service jobs by 2027. With the advent of artificial intelligence tools, the cruel reality is that we can possibly achieve this even earlier.
In the United States, the Trump administration has created the Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to reduce government expenditure. This is truly necessary for a nation like the US, which has had such a large a deficit and is living on ever-increasing debt.
Hong Kong must ensure that its deficit does not spiral out of control. We cannot go down the route of printing money or financing ourselves by issuing bonds.
The financial secretary must find the courage to follow the Trump administration’s example. Parents of school-going children and the elderly are already unhappy that the benefits they enjoyed have been targeted. It wouldn’t do Chan much more harm to be criticised by civil servants, too, if he cut their wages or further downsized departments.
If he makes cuts in a logical way, even if people condemn him, he will have done the right thing.
Randy Lee, Ma On Shan
Cancelling HK$2,500 student grant too much, too soon
As someone who will be directly affected, I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed withdrawal of the HK$2,500 annual education grant proposed in this year’s budget speech.
Although the pandemic is over, the economy remains stagnant. Many families rely on the subsidy to cover essential educational expenses such as the cost of textbooks. The removal of the grant will disproportionately affect low-income families.
Proposed in 2019 and regularised since 2020, the HK$2,500 grant has been widely adopted. The sudden withdrawal of the assistance will cause hardship and inconvenience for many as they will have to quickly reallocate their income or savings.
Given that Hong Kong has recorded a budget deficit for the third consecutive year, it is understandable for the government to take an aggressive approach. However, education is one of every child’s most fundamental needs and should be prioritised.
Instead of cancelling the grant completely, the government could modify it to a means-tested one, available only to households with very low income. Although this would involve some administrative costs, overall it would help the government lower spending.
The subsidy could also be progressively reduced each year instead of being abolished in one go. This would give people time to adjust.
Jason Lam, Yau Tong


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Opinion

Readers discuss the financial secretary’s efforts to cut costs, and the axing of the HK$2,500 student grant


Readers discuss the financial secretary’s efforts to cut costs, and the axing of the HK$2,500 student grant.


Hong Kong economy

Hong Kong

Paul Chan

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers discuss the financial secretary’s efforts to cut costs, and the axing of the HK$2,500 student grant

Readers discuss the financial secretary’s efforts to cut costs, and the axing of the HK$2,500 student grant