The government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said on Tuesday that it will roll out a third round of relief measures, involving an expenditure of about two billion HK dollars, to improve people's livelihood and help the badly-hit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The relief measures, which will be rolled out soon, comes less than a week after HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam introduced measures to revive the economy and improve people's well-being in her third policy address.

The new round of measures are aimed at supporting the industries severely stricken by the ongoing upheaval in Hong Kong including retail, catering, logistics and tourism, said Paul Chan Mo-po, financial secretary of the HKSAR government, at a press conference.

What's covered in the new round of relief measures?

The HKSAR government will provide fuel subsidies for the transportation industry. Cheung acknowledged that fuel is the main operating cost of the industry. A subsidy of 1.365 billion HK dollars provided by the government will last for six months and is estimated to benefit 61,000 taxis and red minibus drivers, 180 public transport operators and 130,000 commercial vehicle owners. 

The inspection costs of the transportation industry will also be subsidized. The government announced an exemption on inspection fees of commercial vehicles in mid-August, the new round measures will involve an expenditure of about 16.5 million HK dollars to subsidize about 6,300 commercial vehicles.

Rent cuts will be expanded. In mid-August, it was announced that a 50-percent reduction in rent would be provided to most of the short-term tenancy, partial rental restaurants and retail stores for community and commercial uses under the Lands Department and the Government Property Agency, with six-month duration effective on October 1. The new round of rent cuts will expend about 600 million HK dollars, also effective on October 1.