Lawmaker Coutinho calls for extra financial subsidy

Lawmaker Pereira Coutinho wrote an enquiry to the Chief Executive (CE) calling for another round of consumer subsidies to “safeguard quality of life and employment.”
This will be his last written enquiry to the government head in this legislative term.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng was set to have a question and answer session yesterday at parliament, but due to rising concerns surrounding Covid-19, the session was canceled.
The city’s public Conde de São Januário Hospital took in four new patients with the virus earlier this month.
As a substitute for the session, lawmakers were asked to send in written questions.
Coutinho asked the government head if he had plans to release another round of the consumption card allowance, which previously granted a total of MO8,000 to each eligible resident. In addition, he asked if Ho will extend the repayment period for commercial loans borrowed by local businesses.
In his written question, the lawmaker stated that the new cases recorded during the golden period of the summer holiday will further impact the city’s economic recovery.
He claimed that certain residents in the cordoned buildings work in the gambling industry, and have taken unpaid leave during the course of the pandemic.
“Now, with epidemic control measures in place, they can’t go to work. They were requested by their employers to take unpaid leave,” the lawmaker noted. “They are incapable of repaying their mortgages, and some of them are not even able to meet their daily expenditures.”
Moreover, he pointed out that “these new cases have weakened confidence to travel, for both residents and tourists.”
The epidemic control measures have also hindered the operations of businesses around the control zones, he added. AL