Govt Moots Supermarket Discounts In Lieu Of Subsidy

The Labour and Welfare Secretary, Law Chi-kwong, said the government has decided to go ahead and grant wage subsidies to supermarket chains Wellcome and ParkNshop, as well as big property management firms, even though it's obvious that they are not as badly hit by the recent economic downturn as other businesses.

Speaking at a press conference, he said as it will take time to ascertain the impact of the pandemic on these big companies.

Instead, Law said, the government would ask the supermarkets to offer discounts to NGOs or low income people, and ask property management firms to share at least 80 percent of the subsidies with owners or owners' corporations which engage their service.

“The employment support scheme is to help the employers to help the community, in particular employment,” said Law.

“But there are definitely companies who obtained these subsidies, they are not seriously affected. So there is some need for them to … sort of, pay back to the community.”

“So we design some very special procedures for these two sectors,” said the labour chief.