[Budget 2020] Who was omitted to dismantle the 30 billion anti-epidemic fund? How many to the grassroots hands

Social News

Written by: Chen Jiahui

2020-02-25 11:38

The Government will publish the Budget tomorrow. In the face of the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic caused by a new coronavirus this year, it will impact Hong Kong's economy. Before the release of the Budget, the government proposed the establishment of a 30 billion yuan "epidemic prevention response" involving 24 measures. Epidemic Fund "has been passed by the Legislative Council.

However, after analyzing the use of the anti-epidemic fund, it was found that the fund concentratedly provided subsidies to business owners. The most affected front-line wage earners did not directly benefit; some measures were not approved in detail, but they were "bundled", including up to 5.6 billion yuan, The Retail Industry Funding Scheme, which accounts for the fund's largest sum.

In addition, the fund cannot cover all people who need support urgently, such as those who are unemployed due to the epidemic, medical care in private clinics, and services that also have a substantially reduced but unsupported business, such as tutorial centers, beauty salons, hair salons, etc. I believe the key lies in whether the Budget will respond to cross-party demands for money.

▼ 30 billion measures for epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic funds ▼

+9

+8

+7

The pneumonia epidemic has hit Hong Kong's economy. The government applied for funding from the Legislative Council to set up an "epidemic and anti-epidemic fund" of up to 30 billion yuan, including a total of 24 measures, including grants to the Hospital Authority, support for local mask production, and global procurement of protective equipment. Measures to prevent epidemic diseases, and provide subsidies to affected industries and individuals.

More measures to support the boss

Among the measures, at least half, or 12 items, involve providing support to business owners, such as providing 80,000 to 200,000 yuan in subsidies to restaurant licensees, and issuing 80,000 yuan in subsidies to each licensed hotel and licensed travel agency for transportation. The industry provides fuel or lump-sum subsidies. Among them, the travel agency funding scheme and the licensed hotel funding scheme have begun to register.

There are only eight measures that mainly benefit frontline medical care and grassroots workers, including special gratuities and rental allowances for medical staff of the HA, and four months for each residential building cleaning and security staff, 1,000 per person per month. The "Serious Allowance", which includes a special allowance for working families and students, financial assistance for preschool and elementary and middle school students, and special allowances for households, provides an additional allowance of 1,000 yuan for middle school day school, elementary school, and kindergarten students.

No implementation details for largest retail funding

In terms of value, the largest sum of money is the "Retail Funding Scheme" of up to $ 5.6 billion. However, the government has passed the implementation without submitting implementation details. The second is 4.7 billion yuan to support the medical bureau, which will be used for manpower expenses, rent allowances, purchase of protective equipment, drugs and instruments. As for the subsidies and subsidies for the food industry and the transportation industry, they also exceeded 3 billion yuan.

The announcement of the content of the anti-epidemic fund caused controversy. Some commented that most of the funding was provided to business owners, not front-line workers. For example, for the food industry, subsidies are only issued to restaurant licensees. Each restaurant or cafeteria licensee receives 20 10 million yuan subsidy, snack food restaurants, bakeries, siu mei and lo mei shops and other licensees can receive 80,000 yuan each, there is no special support for restaurant staff.

Forgotten: Unemployed, Unemployed Government Refuses Unemployment Assistance

As for the tourism industry, many leaders and tour guides do not have a base salary, but instead calculate their salaries based on the number of trips. Most of them stop and stop because of the sharp drop in passengers. However, the subsidy of 80,000 yuan per travel agency is only given to licensees. May not benefit front-line employees.

The Census and Statistics Department announced earlier that the latest unemployment rate in Hong Kong reached 3.4%, a new high in more than three years. Among them, the unemployment rate in the catering service industry and construction industry reached 6.1% and 5.7% respectively. However, with the exception of construction workers, who had to have a record in the construction worker registration system in the past year, they could apply for an epidemic prevention subsidy of 1,500 yuan per person. The epidemic prevention fund may have missed most of the unemployment due to the epidemic , And those who have been more affected by the outbreak due to unemployment. The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Law Chi-kwong, earlier responded to members of the Legislative Council that he would not consider setting up an unemployment assistance fund for the time being.

Another forgotten group: tutorial school, beauty salon

In addition, the current subsidy to the industry mainly covers the retail, food industry, transportation, tourism and convention and exhibition industries. Many service industries have not benefited, such as tutorial schools and education centers, beauty centers and hair salons, yoga and dance courses.

As the epidemic continues in Hong Kong, private clinics may provide pre-hospital treatment for more patients with pimple pneumonia, but the fund has not mentioned how to support medical staff in private clinics. As for the epidemic prevention support for residential care homes for the elderly and disabled people, the anti-epidemic fund is not involved, but the Social Welfare Department is responsible for the relevant funds.

▼ Hong Kong masks, panic buying, conflict, winter under the epidemic ▼

+10

+9

+8

Cross-party consensus: 10,000 people

At present, there are many voices in society demanding that the entire people send money. This has also become a "cross-party consensus" among the people and the system. The Democratic Party met with Luo Zhiguang last week and again asked the government to send 10,000 yuan to the entire population in the Budget. It also said that if the Financial Secretary Chen Maobo refused to respond to the appeal, it would be a great political disaster. The leader of the Citizen Party, Yang Yueqiao, also proposed a temporary motion of 10,000 yuan for the entire people at the meeting of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council on February 21st, which was subsequently rejected. In addition, the Labor Party and the Social Democratic Party also petitioned the General Political Office to urge the government to send money.

In terms of organizational system, including the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the New Democratic Party, and the Liberal Party have all proposed to send 10,000 yuan to the people; the Democratic Alliance also supports the government to send money. However, a number of formed political parties have previously rejected Yang Yueqiao's money-distributing motion and have been criticized for "turning things around." Later, the DAB and the New Democratic Party clarified that the veto motion was to ensure that the Epidemic Fund appropriation was passed to avoid pandemics.

2020 Budget Wuhan Pneumonia 01 Data