Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po speaks at a press conference on the disbursement of the second batch of HK5,000 consumption at the Central Government Offices in the city on June 13, 2022. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will deal with the consumption-voucher eligibility reviews with leniency, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his blog on Sunday.
Writing in his blog, Chan said that the failed applicants for the consumption voucher program are required to provide only “simple proof” to become eligible for the second installment of the handout
About 240,000 applicants have been deemed ineligible for the second phase of the HK$5,000 ($637) vouchers, which will be disbursed on Aug 7, because the applicants had closed their Mandatory Provident Fund accounts early on the grounds of their “permanent departure from Hong Kong”.
As of Saturday evening, the Government Secretariat had received about 30,000 applications to review denied claims.
Writing in his blog, Chan said that the failed applicants for the consumption voucher program are required to provide only a “simple proof” to become eligible for the second installment of the handout.
“Considering that some people might have indeed returned to work or lived in Hong Kong for different reasons, the Secretariat had sent SMSs to registrants who had made such declarations, and that they could submit a review in writing within 14 days of receipt of the SMS if they disagreed,” Chan said.
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He stressed that the government will adopt a lenient attitude and handle the reviews in a convenient way for the public, saying that documents such as bank statements, tax statements, salary statements, rent contracts, telephone bills, electricity, water and gas bills, medical records and hospital follow-up slips can all be accepted as proof.
Those who are not able to provide the above documents could also state their reasons in their appeals, and the secretariat will deal with them case-by-case based on the applicant’s actual situation, Chan said.
Responding to calls that further checks should first be conducted to ascertain whether those who had withdrawn their MPF contributions early have actually ceased to reside in the city, Chan said there were many requirements and restrictions in the existing legislation to protect various types of personal data, which make it impossible to conduct checks at will.
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