Many people went to the Octopus service station of the MTR station to take their cards, and most of them were “Friends”.
The Hong Kong government issued 2,000 yuan consumption vouchers for the second phase of the 2023 consumption voucher program to eligible citizens through six stored value facility operators yesterday. Regardless of whether government officials and many politicians have recently “released the wind”, they pointed out that consumer coupons should not be regularized, and this issue should be the last distribution of consumer coupons, which means that the government may refuse to open positions, and consumer coupons may become extinct. However, many citizens request the government to continue distributing consumption vouchers, otherwise, life will be even more bleak when the economy does not recover. Some councilors believe that the authorities should consider distributing consumer vouchers depending on the economic situation, and call on the government to “not close the door so quickly”; some scholars point out that instead of letting the government “big flower tube”, it is better to distribute consumer vouchers to citizens and let them choose by themselves. .
The government has been in deficit for years, and the authorities announced a new budget at the end of February this year, stating that the deficit this year will be as high as 140 billion yuan, which is 1.5 times higher than the original budget. The government expects to continue to record deficits in 2023/2024, which will create a fiscal deficit for five consecutive years. In the first two months of this fiscal year, as of May 31, 2023, the overall expenditure is 124.1 billion yuan, and the revenue is 52.2 billion yuan, which means a deficit of 71.9 billion yuan. Import and export trade, one of the main driving forces of Hong Kong’s economy, also continued to decline. The value of Hong Kong’s exports in May was only 327.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.6%, which was 4.5 percentage points worse than expected, and it has recorded double digits for two consecutive months The number fell back and expanded by 2.6 percentage points from the decline in April, recording 13 consecutive months of decline.
Councilor advocates distribution of small-amount consumer coupons for festive seasons
Although Hong Kong has returned to normal after the epidemic, the economy has not yet fully recovered, and many politicians have successively “breathed light” on consumer coupons. Some financial officials reiterated that the consumer voucher program is “difficult to become a permanent plan.” Councilor Ip Lau Sook-yee, who is also the convener of the Executive Council, also made similar remarks, saying that consumer vouchers must not become a permanent measure, so that citizens have The mentality of relying on the government is against the spirit of Lion Rock, which is the basis for success.
However, Lam Chun-sing, a lawmaker with a labor background, believes that although consumer coupons will not be a permanent measure of the government, they still need to be distributed depending on the situation. There are challenges, and it is suggested that the authorities can consider distributing consumer coupons of small amounts during specific festivals, such as thousands of yuan, and the amount can depend on the situation to stimulate consumption.
Chen Weiqiang, a lecturer at the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, also believes that the government should not “turn off the gate” too early in distributing consumer vouchers. Therefore, instead of this, it is better to distribute consumer coupons to citizens and let the public decide their own use.
Many scholars in Jipu on the street urged reconsideration
Chen also pointed out that although the market has picked up in recent months, there are still many lucky shops on the street. The market situation is “not very prosperous”, and it is obvious that retail has just started, so the authorities should reconsider.
As for the government’s repeated statement that there is a fiscal deficit, it is not feasible to distribute consumer vouchers for a long time. Chan Wai-keung believes that even if Hong Kong has a fiscal deficit, the cost of consumer vouchers will not be too high, and the authorities can save other costs. He also took Macau as an example, pointing out that the local government distributes money every year, even under the epidemic, it still distributes money, reflecting that the distribution of money will not cause a large burden on public finances, and I believe Hong Kong can learn from it.
Regarding the distribution of this round of consumption coupons, some financial officials pointed out yesterday that 136,000 citizens chose to replace stored value payment tools to receive coupons, and 220,000 newly qualified people successfully registered. The market will inject an additional 13 billion yuan in consumption power. After three years of operation, the consumer voucher program has made electronic payment more popular in Hong Kong and has a wider coverage. So far, more than 13,000 personal electronic stored value payment accounts have been added, and more than 220,000 corporate accounts have been added. In the first quarter of this year, the total transaction volume of stored value payment facilities was 138.5 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 25% year-on-year; the number of transactions exceeded 1.8 billion, with an average transaction value of 77 yuan per transaction, of which the transaction volume of physical point of sale increased by more than 36%.
With the economy not yet fully recovered, life for the citizens is difficult.
Voice of the public
2023-07-16 21:45:00
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