HKSAR offers new measures worth $511m to stabilize economy, provide jobs

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Wednesday announced new measures worth HK$4 billion ($510.92 million), including exemptions for businesses’ water bills, to help companies and stabilize the job market.

Chan said that taxpayers in the city can pay their 2018-19 tax by installments within one year, without any additional charge.

For qualified non-residential users, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government will subsidize 75 percent of the electricity bills for four months, with a monthly cap of HK$5,000 for each user, which will benefit about 430,000 stores.

The HKSAR government will also give a 75 percent exemption for every merchant’s water bill with an upper limit of HK$20,000, and for sewage charges up to HK$12,500 for four months, which will help about 250,000 merchants.

Chan said that a program worth about HK$350 million to help with youth employment will be introduced to stabilize the local job market.

“The most direct beneficiaries of this round of bailouts would be those hardest-hit in the riots, namely the small and medium-sized businesses in the tourism and retail sectors,” Liu Guohong, director of the Department of Finance and Modern Industries at the China Development Institute in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

“It is a much-needed boost for those businesses, some of which may not survive otherwise,” Liu said. “The recovery of the sector is essential for the full recovery of the economy.”

On Wednesday, the IMF praised the city’s resilient and stable performance in its financial system amid a marked economic contraction and mounting uncertainties.

The IMF noted that Hong Kong’s prudential macro policies have been a buffer for the challenges the city is facing.