Hong Kong press Thursday gave reserved welcome to the 2006-2007 government budget plan unveiled Wednesday, hailing the efforts to restructure revenue but asking bolder measures in tax reform.

"The budget speech provided a positive start, as the government has overcome the deficit issue and can focus more on restructuring revenue and spending," said a commentary published by the English daily South China Morning Post.

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR) on Wednesday reported a surplus of 5.8 billion HK dollars ( about 748 million US dollars), the first time combing back from red deficit numbers since 1997.

Predicting an optimistic scenario for this year's economy growth, the budget plan lowered the marginal rates of tax bands, which will reduce the tax payable by nearly 1 million people and cost the government about 1.5 billion HK dollars (about 193 US dollars).

Meanwhile, the plan didn't cut down the salaries tax, which was revised up in 2003 with sluggish economic growth.

"The reduction in the marginal income tax rate should provide some relief, and keeping the salaries tax bracket unchanged should help broaden the tax base," said the South China Morning Post.

Standard, the city's English business daily, also affirmed that the budget plan gave almost every circle of the society something, ranging from homeowners, middle-class workers, hospitals and the unemployed.

However, many are unsatisfied with the scale of tax concession provided, complaining the budget plan too conservative to stimulate economy.

"The budget plan's prudence (over tax reduction) is reasonable, but it's apparently not enough to stimulate the economy," said the Chinese daily Wen Wei Pao.

In a bid to keep the government revenue stable, the budget plan didn't reduce the salaries tax, which has been called by the public since the surplus was reported.

The budget plan also proposed to introduce the good and service tax in a time of three years so as to restructure government revenue, which is volatile for heavily relying on land sales and tax from a small percentage of the city's population.

Source: Xinhua