Efforts to contain government spending didn't stop Financial Secretary Paul Chan from sprinkling some sweeteners into the budget announced on Wednesday, but his offerings were slimmed down this time around.

The familiar 100 percent reduction in salaries tax or tax under personal assessment will be provided once again, but this time with a cap of HK$1,500. That's half last year's HK$3,000 ceiling, which itself was half the previous year's HK$6,000.

There's also a reduction in profits tax for the current financial year but the cap is being halved as well, also to HK$1,500.

Chan said more than 2.1 million taxpayers and over 165,000 businesses will benefit from these two relief measures which will take a HK$3.1 billion bite out of government revenue.

Homeowners, meanwhile, will get a rates concession of up to HK$500 for the first quarter of 2025/26, as will owners of non-domestic properties. Last time, it was HK$1,000.

An extra dose of cash for social security recipients has also survived the budget constraints and is unchanged from last year, with an additional half-month payment of regular allowances, including Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payments, Old Age Allowance, Disability Allowance and Working Family Allowance.

Chan also had some good news for people planning to buy property.

"To ease the burden on buyers of residential and non‑residential properties at lower values, I announce that the maximum value of properties chargeable to a stamp duty of HK$100 will be raised from HK$3 million to HK$4 million with immediate effect," he said.

This year's budget sweeteners amount to HK$8.3 billion in total, down from HK$11.5 billion last year.