Hong Kong’s finance chief has defended the government’s plan to cancel the HK$2,500 student subsidy after being quizzed by lawmakers over the lack of consultation.
Hong Kong students. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The non-means-tested student grant – provided to all students enrolled in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools – will no longer be available in the upcoming academic year, Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced on Wednesday in the 2025 Budget.
Nearly 800,000 students will be affected by the measure.
The subsidy was rolled out as a one-off relief measure in 2019, but it became a recurrent expenditure starting in the fiscal year 2020-21.
The subsidy cancellation was not mentioned during Chan’s budget speech in the Legislative Council (LegCo), during which he told lawmakers that “strictly containing public expenditure is a must.”
However, the policy was included in a supplementary document distributed to journalists at a closed-door working session during the budget speech.
Consultation with ‘some representatives’
During a LegCo briefing on Thursday, legislator Michael Luk asked the finance chief why the government decided to axe the student subsidy without any prior consultation, and whether the authorities would consider reversing its decision.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan meets the press on February 26, 2025, after he delivered the 2025 Budget. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The grant has eased many parents’ financial burden at the start of the academic year, Luk said, adding that it should be retained to go in tandem with other “family-friendly” policies.
In response, Chan explained that while the 2 per cent spending cut was applicable to all government bureaux and departments, the actual budget-saving measures were devised by the bureau heads, he said.
The finance minister also said the Education Bureau had communicated with “some representatives” from the education sector in the legislature, without naming which legislator had been consulted.
Following the LegCo briefing, Chu Kwok-keung of the education functional constituency said the authorities had never consulted his opinions on the grant cancellation.
During previous formal and informal communication with the government, the authorities had never mentioned axing the HK$2,500 subsidy, he said.
“I urge the relevant policy bureau to review and improve the communication mechanism. For expenditure revisions involving significant public interest, the authorities should conduct extensive consultations, including listening to the opinions of sector-specific legislators,” Chu wrote in Chinese on Facebook.
Hong Kong lawmaker Chu Kwok-keung. File photo: Chu Kwok-keung, via Facebook.
In his Wednesday speech, Chan had described the latest budget as a “reinforced version” of the fiscal consolidation programme.
In a press conference on Thursday, Secretary for Education Christine Choi said the government aimed to reduce education spending by about HK$6.2 billion. She estimated that the student grant cancellation could help the government save around HK$2 billion a year.
“Today, we can see that the government will face a challenging situation in terms of its finances in the coming years,” she said in Cantonese. “We think there is a need to review the resources allocated on education, hoping it is more effective and targeted.”
Asked about the bureau’s consultation efforts, Choi said the Education Bureau had communicated with lawmakers and stakeholders through different channels. But the authorities would not disclose specific policies to the legislators, she said.
