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Consumption Vouchers under Phase I

Due to the local epidemic situation, the value of retail sales fell by 14.6% in February, reversing the increasing trend over the past 12 consecutive months. The unemployment rate also recorded a notable increase to 4.5% in February and is expected to hike further. In short, the epidemic and economic situations are both severe. To alleviate the pressure on the economy and people brought by the epidemic, I rolled out a series of supporting measures in my Budget in end February, with a view to relieving people’s burden and boosting confidence. The disbursement of $5,000 electronic consumption vouchers under Phase I in April is one of those measures.

By using the registration record of the successful registrants last year, nearly 6.2 million citizens will receive the new round of consumption vouchers automatically and do not need to register again. For the very small amount of people who need to update their record due to various reasons, the relevant updating procedures have been completed and all the preparations are ready. The consumption vouchers under Phase I will be disbursed on April 7, i.e. the coming Thursday. The vouchers are valid for seven months with the expiry date of October 31 to allow more flexibility in spending, i.e. the vouchers can be used up before the expiry date with a daily spending of only around $20.

Yesterday I took part in distributing the anti-epidemic service bags. The most effective way in supporting the economy and people’s livelihood is to mobilise the whole community to control the epidemic quickly and effectively.

The distribution arrangements will be the same as last year. People using accounts of AlipayHK, Tap & Go or WeChat Pay HK will receive the $5,000 voucher on April 7 through their respective accounts. For people collecting voucher via Octopus, the $5,000 consumption voucher will be disbursed by two batches. People could start collecting the first batch of $4,000 by tapping the card on April 7. In view of the current stored value limit of Octopus card, people are not able to collect more than $3,000 voucher value when tapping their cards for the first time and the remaining value can be collected by tapping the card again after the stored value of the Octopus card is lowered. In other words, the $4,000 voucher can be fully collected by tapping the card several times. As for the remaining $1,000 voucher under Phase I, it will be disbursed on the 16th day of the following month when the cumulative total "eligible spending" has reached $4,000, and the earliest date of disbursement will be June 16. Put it simply, if “eligible spending” has reached $4,000 on or before end May, people could get the remaining $1,000 voucher on June 16. The "eligible spending" needs to reach $4,000 by end October the latest, i.e. before the expiry of the Phase I consumption voucher, in order to collect the remaining voucher on November 16.

Disbursing the Phase I consumption voucher in early April aims to provide support to people who are under great pressure due to the epidemic. The relatively long validity period for this phase of voucher can provide greater flexibility and hence there is no need for people to rush out for spending. We hope that this can also help extend the positive effect brought by this $30 billion initiative to the market and bring more businesses to merchants.

As we can learn from the anti-epidemic work over the past two years, the most effective way in supporting the economy and people’s livelihood is to control the epidemic quickly and effectively. We should fully implement the strategy of “dynamic zero infection” to strive for the resumption of cross-boundary travel with the Mainland as soon as possible, and actively seek for resumption of travel with the international community under the prerequisite of proper risk management. This is what best suits the overall interests of Hong Kong citizens and the society. We need to establish a mechanism under the “dynamic zero infection” strategy, continue to make suitable adjustments taking into account the development of the epidemic, and cut off all potential chains of infection through testing decisively and precisely, so as to achieve “early identification, early quarantine, early treatment”. We also have to mobilise the whole community to fight against the epidemic together, in order that the epidemic could be brought under control to the largest extent within the shortest time possible.

The epidemic has posed a huge challenge to Hong Kong. While making our all-out effort in fighting against the epidemic to protect the lives and health of our people, we should also do our best in stabilising the economy and supporting people’s livelihood. The early disbursement of the consumption voucher could help serve this stabilisation function to a certain extent. The almost seven-month validity period is also long enough to provide flexibility in spending so that people can use the vouchers without stress while complying with the anti-epidemic measures. Let us join hands to fight against the virus for an early victory, so that we could resume our normal daily lives and achieve economic recovery soonest possible.

April 3, 2022