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Government's decision on MPF primary legislation announced
The Government today (Tuesday) announced a decision on the main features to be included in the primary legislation which will provide enabling provisions for the establishment of a mandatory provident funds system in Hong Kong.
This follows careful consideration of the many recommendations by the consultants and after seeking the advice of the Executive Council.
Announcing this at a press conference today, the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Michael Leung reiterated that the main features contained few surprises as most of them had already been outlined in his speech to the LegCo debate on MPF in March.
Mr Leung took the opportunity to clarify some misconceptions which had arisen since the release of the consultants report last Friday.
On coverage, he pointed out that the proposed legislation would require all employees and self-employed persons, unless specifically exempted, to be covered by an MPF scheme.
"It is not right to claim, as some have, that the self- employed will not be covered. We agree with the consultants that it may be necessary to provide coverage in phases, but our goal is to cover the workforce as widely as possible," he said.
Mr Leung also refuted the claim that the Government would be excluding the less well paid from the scheme by setting an income floor at $4,000 for the purpose of contribution.
"By setting an income floor, we are giving an opportunity to the low income group people to decide whether or not they want to contribute to an MPF scheme. If they do decide to contribute, then their employers will have to make a contribution as well. The choice is theirs," Mr Leung said.
For those contributors who are also recipients of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, Mr Leung said the Government would arrange for their MPF scheme contributions to be totally deducted from his assessable earnings in the calculation of the amount of assistance payable.