HK $16.8 billion bail-out for more than 830,000 people to pay tax next year

BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) Hong Kong, "Wen Wei Po" Today in the front-page headlines, Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang announced the total value of nearly $16.8 billion, a total of 18 "overweight" relief measures. 　　According to the source, the SAR government initially estimated that under the new measures, 835,000 taxpayers will not be required to pay any tax next year, and another 565,000 taxpayers will receive the maximum of $8000 in tax relief and would be reflected in the provisional tax next year. "Although the above measures are expected to increase the government's deficit in the current financial year, the government needs to take a very important approach to maintain the economic vitality of the community in the present extraordinary period," Mr Tsang said. He hoped that the necessary funding applications would be completed before the Legislative Council recess this year and that the measures would be empowered to benefit the public as soon as possible.　　He said that the principle of preparing for a new round of relief programmes was to require individual measures not to involve new policies, to be simple and direct, to benefit the public as soon as possible, and to require measures to be targeted and timely and effective to help the public tide over the difficulties and prepare for the recovery. In addition to relieving the two-quarter rates for the adequacy of the new measures of nearly $16.8 billion, he stressed that these 16.8 billion-dollar measures were quite adequate and were definitely not the so-called "salt water" measures which could help the people of Hong Kong to face the difficulties. As to whether the measure was politically motivated, he did not agree with the argument, saying that the measure had no political consideration and that "we will launch the first time after the completion of the first time, which has no political consideration whatsoever." "To ease the economic pressure of the middle class, Mr Tsang proposed that the concession for salaries tax and personal income tax for 2008/2009 should be lifted from 50% to 100% and the ceiling would be raised from $6000 to $8000, and that the rates for 2 quarters should be waived at 1500 yuan per household, To benefit 2.85 million properties in Hong Kong, of which 90% of residential and 60% non-domestic properties may be exempted from the full annual rates.　　As for the grassroots, he proposed to pay 2 months ' rent for public housing tenants, and to provide an additional standard of CSSA for CSSA recipients, an additional one-month old age allowance and a disability allowance, and a one-off allowance of $1000 for students receiving CSSA or student-funded assistance. Tax relief $8000 In addition, he proposed to allocate $490 million to strengthen the work on immunization, community activities and the promotion of voluntary work, in response to the current social situation, to introduce the necessary services and to provide new posts. The SAR government plans to inject $1.2 billion into the continuing Education Fund to encourage the public, including middle-class and white-collar workers, to make good use of their plans for further education and self-improvement.