Eligible Hong Kong households will receive the first instalment of a HK$1,000 (US$128) government electricity charge subsidy as soon as June, authorities have said.

The subsidy will be distributed in 12 instalments to residents’ electricity accounts with either of the city’s two power companies. Subject to the Legislative Council’s approval of its financing, the first round will be rolled out in June at the earliest, according to a government paper submitted to lawmakers.

The allowance was among a raft of relief measures unveiled in Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s budget announced in February.

“Specifically, we will credit HK$80 to each residential electricity account on the first day of each month for 11 consecutive months and HK$120 in the 12th month,” the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said in the paper.

The credits can only be used for offsetting billed charges for electricity consumed up to December 31, 2025, or the close of the account, whichever is earlier.

As with the established practice, the bureau said the expiry date of the past subsidy schemes will consistently be extended from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025.

This ensured both the unused credits under the past subsidy schemes and the freshly injected credits under the new one could be used up to the same expiry date, it said.

This will allow the new subsidy scheme to be valid for about two and a half years from the first credit.

CLP Power and HK Electric, the city’s two power companies, serve about 2.9 million households. The total sum to be granted under the new subsidy scheme was estimated at HK$2.9 billion, the bureau said.

As part of the scheme, authorities will continue to require the two companies to submit monthly reports on the number of accounts eligible for the financial aid, the amount of credit used in a month, as well as unused credit that would be carried forward.