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To tax or not to tax
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Professor Lui said travel would become more common if a GST was introduced, as people would not have to consume locally and pay the tax.
Some young people also said they might consider buying goods and services in mainland China , which are cheaper in price, rather than in Hong Kong .
Wong Man-in, a business administration student at the Chinese University , said she would consume more on the mainland if a GST was to be implemented. Although the amount of the levy for each purchase could be small, in the long run the accumulative sum would be large, she said.
Students are also concerned about a GST on their tuition fees. Although Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen recently told the media that the government might consider to exempt primary and secondary school fees from the planned tax, there was no mention of a concession for university tuition fees.
But Chow Lap-kei, a senior instructor of decision science and managerial economics at the Chinese University, said higher education was being considered a personal investment as the government guaranteed a nine-year free and compulsory education up to form three for students.
ˇ§University students can voice their appeal for an exemption. They should fight for their own interests. If primary and secondary school fees are to be exempted from a GST, tertiary education should also be exempted based on similar reasons,ˇ¨ Dr Chow said.
Still, he considered the impact of a tax on tuition fees would hurt the parents more than the youths.
The government has been trying to persuade the public that the impact of a GST on them will be small and it will not set a high tax rate. The government estimated that a low-income family would have to pay about $260 more each month on its household spending if the tax rate was five per cent. The monthly expenditure of a middle-income home would increase by nearly $510.
Vincent Tang Chi-leung, principal assistant secretary for financial services and the treasury, said a low-rate GST would only have modest implications to the public.
