Voucher Coverage To Be Extensive

Secretary for Financial Services ＆ the Treasury Christopher Hui today said that while the coverage of the electronic consumption vouchers will be as extensive as possible, such vouchers cannot be used for payments to the Government and public organisations.

In response to a lawmaker’s question, Mr Hui explained that according to the current design, the consumption vouchers will cover consumption at physical and online stores of local merchants in the retail, food and beverage and services sectors.

He pointed out that taking into consideration the scheme’s policy intent, the consumption vouchers will in principle not be usable for payments to the Government and public organisations or public utilities, spending on public transport covered by the Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme, purchases of financial products, overseas consumption, person-to-person payments and encashment.

He further stated that the Government is discussing with operators of the four stored value facilities (SVF) selected to participate in the scheme on practical means to prevent the use of consumption vouchers on payments other than local consumption.

The secretary noted that the Government is working out the scheme’s implementation details, including the disbursement arrangement.

Mr Hui emphasised that the Government will carefully consider the different views expressed by the public with regard to the number of instalments, restrictions on usage and scope of use.

He said the Government will strive to strike the best balance among various needs and provide flexibility, so as to facilitate the public to use the consumption vouchers for local consumption of different amounts according to their needs, and at the same time achieve the aim of boosting and stimulating local consumption.

Since the Government announced the list of selected SVFs participating in the scheme on April 11, the operators indicated that the number of enquiries from merchants has increased several times, reflecting that merchants' interest to install electronic payment facilities has increased significantly, Mr Hui added.