Hong Kong finance minister shoots down lawmakers’ proposal to seek approval for cash handout separately from police funding in government budget
- Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and Civic Party say separate funding will help government deliver handout sooner
- But Paul Chan says it is not possible to speed up preparation work for scheme even if Legco gave it a faster approval
Hong Kong’s finance minister has dismissed a proposal by lawmakers to seek approval for the HK$10,000 (US$1,283) cash handout separately from other issues in the government budget, such as a plan to boost police funding.
At a Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, Paul Chan Mo-po rejected calls from two major political parties to pull the handout scheme from the appropriation bill, which contains funding applications for all measures announced in the budget a day earlier.
Both the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), and the opposition Civic Party, said such a move would help the government deliver the handout sooner. The latter also said the handout should not be grouped with increased police funding in the appropriation bill.
Chan’s latest budget revealed a 24.7 per cent increase in expenditure for police to HK$25.8 billion, drawing criticism from the pro-democracy camp.
While the force will record the largest number of new posts across all government departments, it ranks only 14th in percentage growth in expenditure.
The 30,000-strong police force is to get a headcount boost of more than 2,500, up by 7 per cent.
On Thursday, Chan said he would not consider the proposal, saying: “It is not possible to speed up the preparation work for the handout scheme even if Legco gave it a faster approval.”
He said it would take time for the government to liaise with banks to set up the administrative and technological framework for distributing the cash.
