In February Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po released the 2021-22 Budget, in which he mentioned that eligible citizens aged 18 or above can receive electronic vouchers worth HK$5,000.

The government is currently discussing with the Immigration Department over the details to include living in Hong Kong as a condition to receive the vouchers.

In the documents, the government mentioned that the society generally believes that those who constantly live outside the city should not be benefited by the scheme, which is why they will include living in the city as a requirement when applying for the e-vouchers.

The government also said they aimed to commence the scheme in this summer, and will accept applications from the public through centralized online registration or paper-form submission.

They emphasised that the e-vouchers cannot be used to pay government or commercial fee, public transportations or to purchase financial products. It is also not applicable for overseas transactions or exchanging for cash.

The government is now studying with the payment providers in preventing the public from using the vouchers for non-local consumptions.

Earlier this month four payment providers were chosen by the government, including AlipayHK, Octopus, Tap & Go and WeChat Pay HK.

Octopus today also announced that starting from Thursday, cards with stored value capped at HK$1,000 will be gradually upgraded to a HK$3,000 cap.