All Hong Kong permanent residents and new arrivals aged 18 and above will get HK$10,000 (US$1,280) worth of electronic consumption vouchers this year.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in his Budget speech on Wednesday that the vouchers will be given out through suitable stored value facilities.
Last year, Hongkongers received similar e-vouchers worth HK$5,000 (US$640) through electronic payment methods including Octopus, AlipayHK, WeChat Pay and Tap & Go.
Chan said consumption vouchers valued at HK$5,000 will be disbursed in April to over 6.3 million successful registrants first by making use of the registration data collected through last year’s consumption voucher scheme.
They will get the remaining vouchers by installments together with the new eligible persons in the middle of the year.
“I hope that the scheme will inject impetus to the market when the epidemic is stabilized so as to accelerate economic recovery, and further encourage the public and merchants to use electronic payment which will promote the development of digital economy,” he said.
Chan said the scheme is expected to benefit about 6.6 million people.
The entire scheme will incur about HK$66.4 billion (US$8.5 billion) of financial commitment.
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