Call for salary freeze: Former secretary Anthony Cheung urges government to prioritize fiscal discipline

Former secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung has advocated for a salary freeze for civil servants instead of pay cuts, urging senior officials and lawmakers to “take the lead in tiding over the difficult times with the public.”

In an article published in a Chinese newspaper on Tuesday, Cheung said the need for the government to re-establish fiscal discipline without hasty actions. 

He said that, given the ongoing economic restructuring, changes in both internal and external markets, and shifts in demographics and productivity, the fiscal deficits are now structural rather than cyclical.

Cheung criticized the current administration's eagerness to achieve success through large-scale construction projects, which have strained financial resources. 

He noted that fiscal reserves plummeted from HK$1.1 trillion at the end of March 2018 to HK$570.9 billion by last October, now equivalent to only nine months of government expenditure.

He argued for the necessity of setting medium-term goals and pragmatically introducing revenue-generating measures. 

Regarding cost management, Cheung expressed concern that salary reductions for civil servants could negatively impact overall public consumption and hinder economic recovery.

“To address these challenges, the government should consider freezing salaries, streamlining operations and procedures, alleviating business burdens, and critically reviewing the cost-effectiveness of large projects undertaken in recent years,” Cheung said.

(Stacy Shi)