Political situation
Written by: Lin Jian
2021-02-26 07:00
Last update date: 2021-02-26 07:00
[Budget 2021] Financial Secretary Chen Maobo announced a new budget the day before (February 24). Among them, the 5,000 yuan electronic consumer voucher was the most concerned.
This year's fiscal deficit reached 257.6 billion yuan, and it is expected that the fiscal deficit next year will still reach 100 billion yuan.
According to the real-time survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion, although the score and net satisfaction of this year's Budget have reached new lows, the people of Chen Maoboben have risen without falling, and "survived the miracle."
Some politicians laughed and said that even with a huge fiscal deficit, 36 billion consumer coupons were still spent, and the wealthy man was considered "exhausted."
However, everything is exhausted, and potential risks always need to be addressed.
Past experience tells us that the simpler this kind of "all people's share" measures are, the lower the chance of "trouble".
Electronic consumer vouchers still lack precedent in Hong Kong, and the administrative issues involved may become the source of another wave of disputes.
I believe that many readers still remember the "4000 Chaos of Sending Money" that caused Chen Maobo's exhaustion the year before.
▼How to use the coupon?
Click the picture to see the $5000 electronic coupon lazy bag▼
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Chen Maobo himself is not seriously affected by the low budget score
As we all know, the political circles generally regard Chen Maobo as one of the "dark horses" in the election of the chief executive next year. At a critical moment more than a year before the election, the current budget is considered a good opportunity for Chen Maobo to "strengthen".
Although in the current political situation, "patriotism" and political loyalty are the first conditions for Beijing to choose its chief executive, Hong Kong must be managed well and domestic reputation must not be too bad. Otherwise, chaos will occur after taking office and cause chaos for the central government at any time.
It is important to win the support of the people.
In this year's budget, Chen Maobo did a good job of "expectation management" and predicted that the fiscal deficit might reach 300 billion yuan, and he would "see the food and eat."
On the eve of the announcement, there was already a "blow". Not only did the national distribution of money fail, but even the original sugar distribution measures were not optimistic.
Under the final fiscal deficit of RMB 257.6 billion, the distribution of sugar was indeed "sweetened", but it was not completely "sweetened." The subsidies such as CSSA, fruit grant, and longevity allowance were still distributed with "1.5 pay" and "shrinked version". "Tax rebates and rates rebates are measures, and electronic consumer vouchers also contain a disguised taste of giving money.
From a numerical point of view, this year’s Budget scored only 36.4 points, which is a historically low level. However, it should be noted that after the legislative amendments the previous year, the society was polarized and the popularity of the entire SAR government declined, and all government policies would be severely criticized.
Last year's Budget announced that all people would distribute money, which "neutralized" citizens' dissatisfaction, with a score of 54.1 points.
This year's Budget will no longer allocate money. Under "more harmful", it has returned to its original form, reflecting the impact of the amendments on the government's popularity.
There is one point worthy of Chen Maobo’s "sigh of relief": For the time being, it seems that the Secretary-General’s people did not expect to be seriously affected. On the contrary, they increased by 1 point from the survey conducted in early February. The latest score is 36.2 points-although not high, but with a " For the "Sweet Reduction Budget", it is fortunate that the score has not fallen sharply.
According to the analysis of politicians, if there is no electronic consumer vouchers, Chen Maobo’s popularity is definitely not the case. Electronic consumer vouchers can be described as the "lifesaver" of this year's budget.
▼Budget for 2021: Lazy Pack for People's Benefit Measures▼
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"Caring and Sharing" to Man City
However, the implementation of electronic consumer coupons may not be so smooth.
Because of this kind of measures that everyone shares, every additional precondition will increase administrative procedures and costs.
If there are too many levels, the procedure will be prolonged, but it will lose the meaning of "bailout".
Having said that, I believe that many people have recalled the "Caring and Sharing" project the year before.
It is said that after Chen Maobo released his budget in 2018, he was accused of favoring middle-class and high-income people and coldly treating the grassroots. He finally announced in March that he would “remediate omissions” and distribute 4,000 yuan to eligible citizens.
If the benefit of other budget measures is less than 4,000 yuan, the difference can also be made up.
The project is handled by the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency (WFA).
However, the plan is accused of complicated applications. The government has listed six major conditions, such as no property in Hong Kong, ordinarily resides in Hong Kong, etc. It also has to review the person's benefit amount in the 2018 Budget, and it cannot be processed online.
Under the heavy administrative barriers, applications will not be accepted until February 1, 2019.
A large number of citizens don't even know whether they are eligible or how much they can get. The government has changed the need for proof of address, postage, and other issues. The measures have caused "turmoil in the world." Chen Maobo wants to apologize to the citizens in the live broadcast.
In the end, the "Caring and Sharing" program received 3.44 million applications. It took the government more than one year to complete the distribution (that is, more than two years before and after), and even 12,000 application forms were lost in the process.
Some grassroots people also reported that because they benefited from other measures in the 2018 Budget, they eventually received a small amount of money, but they lost their original intention to help the people in need.
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Two major administrative difficulties in depositing consumer coupons Zheng Yongshun: The track record of installing payment platforms is not satisfactory
When applying electronic consumer vouchers, Chen Maobo has long stated that the measures are limited to local consumption and those who emigrate have no share.
In its original intention, this plan mainly hopes to stimulate local consumption, which is naturally understandable.
However, the more restrictions on policy recipients, the more potential administrative difficulties.
For example, it is necessary to exclude people who have moved overseas, but what about Hong Kong people who study overseas and work overseas?
The government has not yet given a complete answer.
If these people have a share, the government may need to spend extra time reviewing their situation. In the case of suspicious cases, they need to know for themselves, which may delay administrative procedures.
In addition, many people are concerned about whether merchants who have not installed a payment platform can benefit.
The DAB Legislative Council Member Cheng Yongshun said in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that the more consumer vouchers are used by grassroots merchants, the better the effect. If in the end people do not patronize the grassroots merchants and "buy beautiful shirts", it would be contrary to the original intention of the policy. At present, many grass-roots merchants do not have electronic payment platforms. Although Chen Maobo has repeatedly stated that they will assist these merchants with installations, the government has also provided a one-time subsidy of 5,000 yuan for each stall in public markets for health reasons, encouraging stall owners to install non-standard Contact payment system, but the response of the plan was not satisfactory. Only about 30% of the stall owners applied for more than 10,000 market stalls in Hong Kong.
Zheng Yongshun worries that some small businesses and market stalls may not be keen on installing payment systems because they are afraid of troubles and insufficient incentives. As a result, merchants in need will not benefit.
He called on the government and the electronic platform to ask for more concessions during the negotiation process, so that merchants have more incentives to install the system. "Always use more platforms and more business, and it will benefit. The government needs to consider this."
Zheng Yongshun said that in the past, the installation of electronic payment platforms for market stalls had not been satisfactory.
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Mai Meijuan: Announce the details of the arrangement as soon as possible to avoid "rolling"
Mak Meijuan, a member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, said that in principle, he agrees with the practice of requiring beneficiaries to live in Hong Kong, because the original intention of always vouchers is to stimulate local consumption.
As for how many months it takes to stay in Hong Kong to benefit, she said that she has no clear idea yet and is open to it.
She also hopes that the government will prepare and announce the specific arrangements as soon as possible, such as how to install payment platforms for merchants, so as not to "fail" to launch in the summer.
Mai Meijuan also said that the government should take this opportunity to promote electronic payments to vendors.
Because vendors in the past did not have enough incentives to install payment platforms, it is believed that one of the main reasons is that their main customers use more cash, so stall owners are not interested in spending money to add another platform.
If the promotion of electronic consumer vouchers is good this time, one can take the opportunity to popularize electronic payments, secondly, reduce the risk of spreading drugs in cash during the epidemic, and thirdly, they can be used as an experience for reuse in future distribution of consumer vouchers.
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