The Food Licence Holders Subsidy Scheme and the Licensed Hawkers Subsidy Scheme under the Anti-epidemic Fund will open for applications from March 5, the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department announced today.

The Government established the two schemes under the fund to provide financial support to the food business sector and licensed hawkers hard-hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Food Licence Holders Subsidy Scheme aims to provide financial subsidies to eight types of food business licence holders.

A one-off subsidy of $200,000 will be provided to eligible licence holders of the premises in operation including general restaurants, marine restaurants and factory canteens.

A subsidy of $80,000 will be provided to eligible licence holders of the premises in operation including light refreshment restaurants, fresh provision shops, food factories, bakeries and siu mei and lo mei shops.

It is expected that about 28,000 licensees will benefit from the scheme.

The Licensed Hawkers Subsidy Scheme will offer a $5,000 subsidy to each eligible licensee of a hawker licence, which remains valid when the application is approved.

It shall not apply to people newly issued with a hawker licence under the 2019 Re-allocation of 2019 Re-allocation of Vacant Fixed Hawker Pitches & Issue of New Licences exercise.

The scheme is expected to benefit 5,500 licensees.

Application forms are available online or at the department’s District Environmental Hygiene Offices.

The deadline for applications will be on May 4.

Processing work is expected to be completed within about two weeks from receiving eligible applications from applicants.

After applications are approved, the subsidies will be sent out by crossed cheques to the corresponding licensed food premises or the correspondence address of licensed hawkers registered with the department.