Expiry date for vouchers ‘may be extended’

Finance chief promises flexibility with handout and warns not to be too optimistic on economy

The expiry date for the HK$5,000 digital vouchers to be distributed by the government to residents may be extended to Lunar New Year and dished out over fewer instalments, the financial secretary has said, promising more flexibility on the handout.

While Paul Chan Mo-po said he hoped the e-vouchers could boost local spending and accelerate economic recovery, he warned the public not to be too optimistic despite a first-quarter rebound in the city’s gross domestic product.

Chan said he expected registration for the e-voucher scheme to begin by the summer. Residents applying through online platforms could expect to receive their first instalment before the summer holidays in August, while it might take longer if they had registered on paper, he added.

The scheme, a key policy from his budget speech in February, will offer every adult Hong Kong resident HK$5,000 in local spending vouchers, benefiting 7.2 million people. It will cost the government an estimated HK$36 billion, of which HK$600 million is for administrative expenses.

The government originally planned to issue them in five instalments over five months. Authorities have so far not stated an exact usage expiry period for each instalment.

“After listening to public opinion, we have decided to amend the plan and not distribute the HK$5,000 in five instalments, but it will not be distributed in one go either. The general principle is not to have too many instalments,” Chan told a radio programme yesterday.

He said the administration would try to be flexible and consider extending the expiry date of the vouchers to the Lunar New Year holiday next year.

Four electronic payment service providers – AlipayHK, Octopus, Tap & Go and WeChat Pay HK – have been chosen as operators.

While the advance forecast by the Census and Statistics Department last Monday showed a V-shaped rebound in GDP from an all-time low of a 9.1 per cent contraction in the same period last year to an expected growth of 7.8 per cent, Chan warned that the outlook might not be as rosy.

“The data looks good on the surface, mainly because the base figure last year was low,” he said.

“We should not be too optimistic about the future, as economic growth is still uneven and has not yet returned to the level in 2019.”

Despite the latest overall unemployment rate also improving, Chan warned that many of the poor were still struggling with unemployment.

“Economic recovery has a lot to do with the pandemic situation,” he said. “If we fail to control the pandemic … we will not be able to recover fully.”

Another key policy in his annual budget involved offering low-interest loans for about 260,000 unemployed workers.

Sounding upbeat, Chan said the administration had already received about 10,000 applications since last Wednesday when the scheme was launched. Most involved jobless people previously from the catering, retail, transport and tourism industries.

“Many applicants have failed to provide some information or documents, and it will only take two or three days to process once they do so,” he said.