DDHK.ORG - The Hong Kong government expanded the consumption e-voucher scheme in the second period. Digital shopping vouchers will also be given to non-permanent residents, including foreign students.
"The registration period runs from June 23 to July 23, and the vouchers will be disbursed from August 7," it said.
For non-permanent residents there is no requirement to meet the minimum period of stay to qualify. However, they will only receive half of the total scheme, which is HK$5,000.
"We have taken the views of the public and the Legislative Council calling for the beneficiary to be expanded, thus, those who are eligible to become permanent residents will be eligible," said Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Chan Mo-po, on Monday, June 13, 2022. .
But he stressed that e-vouchers will not be given to permanent residents who plan to leave Hong Kong "without any special reason" for 3 consecutive years. To be sure, the authorities will check whether a person has submitted a request to withdraw money in the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) or Registrar of Occupational Retirement Schemes before the age of 65, and whether they have made an official statement that they are leaving permanently when making this request. .
Hong Kong residents can store e-vouchers at any of the six service providers, after BoC Pay and HSBC PayMe merged with operators Alipay HK, Octopus, Tap & Go and WeChat Pay HK.
AlipayHK is operated by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post. For residents who use Octopus to receive vouchers, they will receive HK$2,000 on August 7, and the same amount on October 1. The remaining HK$1,000 will be distributed between December and April. For those who use one of the other five service providers, they will receive HK$2,000 on August 7 and the remaining HK$3,000 on October 1.
The scheme was first introduced last year, where eligible registrants each received a total of HK$5,000 worth of vouchers in their e-wallet during the third and fourth quarters. The government said it increased gross domestic product by 0,7 percent that year. [Source: SCMP] [DDHKNews]
