As the new round of the government’s electronic consumption benefits plan signup started last Friday, some residents in the central area told The Macau Post Daily earlier this week that the elderly in particular may find it difficult to use.
When asked about the scheme, a 30-year-old local woman, who has chosen one of the eight local e-payment platforms, said that the scheme would help with Macau’s economic growth. She said that the plan was not complicated, but added that the elderly may find the new scheme “not easy to use”. She added that using electronic payments will not be easy for senior citizens.
Another local woman in her twenties, who is still listening to other people’s opinions regarding the scheme and its various methods before signing up, said that “the old one was better.”
The government ran a similar subsidised consumption scheme last year.
She pointed out that last year’s scheme was more convenient for everyone than the new one which, she said, was “more complicated”. She also pointed out that old people “may not easily understand” the scheme.
The plan has yet to include non-resident workers (NRWs). Asked about the matter, a retired local resident said that the government could “perhaps” come up with a “positive solution”, adding that NRWs have a big part in Macau’s economy. She also said that since NRWs also live in the city, they also should be covered by the scheme, even if it wouldn’t be necessarily like that enjoyed by residents.
A senior citizen, local Filipino resident Rodolfo Unraquia Bunuel, told The Macau Post Daily that he had just signed up for the new round of the government’s e-consumption benefit plan, and he chose to continue to use his consumption smartcard from last year. He said that before talking to The Macau Post Daily, he thought that he would have 8,000 patacas to spend. He pointed out that he doesn’t know the difference between the “startup fund” and “immediate discount grant” because most of the explanatory videos and articles are in Chinese so that he has been unable to “thoroughly understand” the new policy.
Bunuel said that he has been in Macau for over 30 years and he is always grateful to the Macau government for giving out financial support, adding that the government is “very generous”. However, he said that the “immediate discount grant” was “far too confusing” for him, adding that the 5,000 startup fund was “enough”.
He also said that as the benefit plan’s aim was to help residents, why would the government want to confuse them instead? He stressed he hoped that the consumption plan would be the same as the last two rounds last year so it would cause less confusion.
Bunuel also said that some parts of the plan deserved to be praised, for example, the daily limit of 300 patacas on the fund, and 100-pataca limit on the grant which was encouraging residents to spend at different locations.
“It could also encourage spending because once we went over limit, we would have to pay from our own pocket,” Bunuel added.
After explaining the plan to Bunuel, The Macau Post Daily asked whether he would top up his card and use up the “immediate discount grant”. He replied that he would not. He also said he would prefer the unused part of his “immediate discount grant” to revert to the public coffers so that the government could have more funds to spend on other things.
Meanwhile, a non-resident worker in his thirties said that it would have been acceptable for him to receive even a little bit of the scheme. He further suggested that the plan could at least have paid attention to those NRWs who have lost their jobs but are still in Macau.
This file photo taken in July last year shows a top-up machine used for the second round of the 2020 economic consumption benefit plan at the Government Services Centre in Areia Preta. Photo: Prisca Tang
