Paul Chan Improves e-Voucher Scheme

Chan says he listened to feedback and tweaked the handout

Remember the Hong Kong government decided to give every permanent resident HK$5,000 (US$644) -- but in installments of HK$1,000 e-vouchers? And they had to be used up first before the next batch was handed out?

There will be fewer installments for the e-voucher

But after listening to public feedback, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has gone back to the drawing board and revised the parameters of the HK$5,000 handout in a bid to stimulate the local economy.

He promised more flexibility, with registration for the e-vouchers beginning in the summer (which is literally around the corner), and the electronic handout would start in August and would be valid until the Lunar New Year.

The e-vouchers will benefit 7.2 million people and cost the government (or us taxpayers) HK$36 billion, of which HK$600 million will be for administrative costs.

That's a whopping amount for the latter if everyone gets their money through either Octopus, AlipayHK, Tap & Go, or WeChat Pay HK.

Will wet markets finally accept digital payment?

And what's everyone going to spend this HK$5,000 on?

It'll be interesting to see if this e-voucher exercise really does help local businesses, especially wet market vendors who don't accept any kind of electronic payments. Will this actually push them to move in this direction? Or are the big supermarket chains going to laugh all the way to the bank (again)?