Election Committee lawmaker Peter Koon on Wednesday called on the government to halt its recurrent expenditure cuts for the social welfare sector when it announces its annual budget next month.

Last year, Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced there would be a two percent reduction for three years, to optimise fiscal resources.

Koon, who is also chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, said maintaining the sector's funding at current levels is paramount to helping the underprivileged.

"We've always said that demand for our social services just keeps growing. It's fine that you don't inject more money, but if you cut spending, logically it's a bit strange," he said on RTHK's In The Chamber programme.

"Because when the pool [of beneficiaries] gets bigger and you cut our money, it just gets harder for us to provide services."

Koon added that instead of offering budget sweeteners to the public, he thinks it would be better for the government to revert to higher expenditure levels for categories such as education.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Leung Man-kwong called on officials to strengthen monitoring of employers' recruitment processes in regards to a labour scheme for importing catering sector workers.

Speaking on the same programme, the Kowloon West representative said it is true that there have been fewer import applications since the government changed rules to prioritise job opportunities for locals.

"However, we can't rule out that there are still a small amount of unscrupulous employers who manipulate this scheme to import workers to replace locals," Leung said.

"By extending the [mandatory] recruitment period for locals from four weeks to six before they could import workers, it's just a time cost to employers. They only need to wait for two more weeks."

The councillor went on to say that he does not think employers found to have sacked local workers after bringing in staff from outside the city should bear criminal liability.