Five local residents shared their views on the government’s 8,000-pataca consumption e-vouchers, which will be distributed from October 28, with The Macau Post Daily in the city centre yesterday, with three of the five interviewees saying that they were disappointed with the measure as they would have preferred to receive cash instead.
The e-vouchers will be valid until June 30, 2023.
The government announced on Friday at a press conference at Government Headquarters that the e-vouchers are part of its “living allowance” scheme to ease the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the local economy.
According to the government, the e-vouchers will be handed out in the same way as residents had chosen for the third round of the e-consumption benefit scheme which started running from June 1 this year and will end on February 28 next year, so that residents do not need to re-register for the allowance, which will be automatically deposited into the account of the mobile payment platform (“mobile wallet”) after the recent round of the e-consumption benefits is spent. Holders of e-consumption cards will have top them up when they contain just 10 patacas or less.
Daily use of the living allowance is capped at 300 patacas, the government said.
‘Residents are very short of cash’
A male resident surnamed Poon, a stall owner in his sixties, said he did not agree with the 8,000-pataca living allowance to be allocated in the form of e-vouchers, adding that the government should distribute the allowance instead in both cash and e-vouchers, such as 3,000-patacas in e-vouchers and 5,000-patacas in cash because most residents were “very short of cash” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Poon also said: “E-vouchers force us to shop at the supermarket as children’s tuition fees or rent cannot be paid for with e-vouchers.”
Talking about his business, Poon said he was suffering “some” loss from the e-consumption benefit scheme because it costs businesses money as “fees are charged for every payment received.”
‘Govt’s requirement to use up e-vouchers in recent round is reasonable’
A 12-year-old female student surnamed Lei said she thought that it would have been better to give the 8,000 patacas in cash, adding that she could easily lose her e-consumption card. However, she described the requirement to use up all the start-up funds and discount grants of the third round of the e-consumption benefit scheme before getting the 8,000-pataca e-vouchers as reasonable, adding: “The money in the card will always be spent.”
‘E-vouchers to be transferred automatically save time to sign up again’
Leong, a 19-year-old female university student, said that the 8,000-pataca e-vouchers would not benefit her as she’s going to study abroad, adding that she would give her e-vouchers to her family for buying daily necessities, such as meals. She also said she appreciated the government’s decision that the e-vouchers can be transferred to her mobile wallet without re-registration, which was convenient for her as she did not need to fill in her personal information to sign up for the e-voucher.
‘Govt forces us to top up e-consumption cards in another way’
A pair of friends in their sixties who work as part-time cleaners, surnamed Ho and Chan, told The Macau Post Daily that they were “not happy” with the 8,000 patacas to be distributed as e-vouchers, adding that they could not spend the money to buy electrical household appliances as the spending limit of the e-vouchers is 300 patacas a day. They said they were disappointed with the government’s decision that the discount grants in their e-consumption card must be used up before they can receive the 8,000-pataca e-vouchers, which “forces” them to top up their e-consumption cards with at least 4,000 patacas, in order to use up their discount grants.
Ho and Chan also said that they had observed price increases in daily necessities, Ho added that she spent 13 patacas on cucumbers last week, which for the same number had increased to more than 14 patacas in just one week.
This photo taken last night in Rua do Comandante Mata e Oliveira shows the area where The Macau Post Daily’s vox pop was carried out yesterday afternoon.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
