More Wish-lists Ahead Of Budget

About 60 people from the Society for Community Organisation have called for the government increase spending on poverty alleviation, housing and health in the upcoming budget.

The cap on government spending is set at one-fifth fifth of the city's gross domestic product.

But SOCO's community organiser Richard Tsoi says the cap should be raised to one-quarter, as he believes the government has sufficient reserves to support more public spending.

Speaking at a demonstration outside government headquarters, he said: "I think in the past, the government has lots of constraints on expanding public expenditure, that are limiting the government from providing more services and welfare ... We are now facing the elderly problem, we also face the problem of 1 million poor people."

Legislator Priscilla Leung was among another group of people outside government headquarters.

Leung, from the Business and Professional Alliance, called on the government to set aside HK$100 billion to re-introduce its Special Loan Guarantee Scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises. The amount is equal to about a quarter of the government's annual recurrent expenditure.

Leung and about 30 people from Kowloon West also urged the government to provide more tax benefits to and a one-month rent waiver to public housing tenants to relieve their burden.