The tax cuts on “premium liquor” have some claim to be the most inconsequential part of the recent policy speech by Hong Kong’s leader. Liquor in this context means the hard stuff: whisky, gin, etc. Premium means the most expensive versions of the hard stuff. Even the government announcement admitted that this would only be 15 per cent of the total market for strong plonk. The way this works is that the current tax rate is 100 percent, which means that half of what you pay for a bottle goes to the government. Under the new regime, the tax rate will be cut to 10 per cent, but only on the part o…