The Hong Kong SAR government is set to hand out HKD5,000 in e-vouchers in installments to each permanent resident of Hong Kong aged 18 or above to stimulate domestic spending, the city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced in yesterday’s budget address.
The HKD5,000 electronic handout is expected to come in five installments in five months, meaning that each eligible adult citizen, who must be living in Hong Kong, will receive HKD1,000 per month.
Each month’s e-voucher will only be valid for a limited time, Chan stated.
The policy for e-vouchers to be given across several payments over a period of months was formulated after “studying the similar schemes implemented by other countries and regions,” Chan told the press.
The official, who addressed the media in a briefing following his budget address, vowed to launch the scheme with momentum, striving to roll out registration for the e-voucher scheme over the coming summer holiday.
The authorities will “reach out to and discuss with providers of mobile payment tools” how the delivery and payment of the e-voucher will work.
When asked why registration must commence during the summer holidays, but not earlier, he explained that it will take time for the government to hold discussions with multiple mobile payment providers.
Considering the scheme’s objective is to boost local spending, the e-vouchers will be prohibited from being used for online overseas purchases.
The scheme is expected to cost the fiscal reserve around HKD36 billion, but benefit around 7.2 million Hong Kong residents, Chan said.
Macau’s government rolled out its first and second rounds of the consumption e-voucher scheme, which distributed MOP3,000 and MOP5,000 to each Macau ID holder, in March and August 2020 respectively. In accordance with regulations, each user could only spend up to MOP300 daily.
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