The gas bill at Chan Wing's Tai Kok Tsui congee shop runs HK$1,100 a month in summer, closer to HK$1,400 when the kitchen goes into winter hour rotation. Towngas announced this week that rates will rise from August. The company's notification named no figure and no ceiling. Chan has held the same Cheung Sha Wan district account since 2009. He has never missed a payment. That fact matters to no one deciding the August rate.

The same week, the government announced it would scrap the income-only poverty line, on the stated ground that income alone does not capture deprivation. What the replacement framework will measure, and when it will produce a comparable household count, was not in the announcement. The government named no methodology and no timeline. A gas-heated kitchen, a cook who has never defaulted, a bill rising from August: none of these appear in the count being retired, and the count that replaces it carries no start date. The bill at Chan's Tai Kok Tsui kitchen runs HK$1,100. From August, it runs higher.