EditorialChanges to HK$2 transport fare subsidy will ensure scheme is viable

While it remains a valuable aid to social cohesion, the sliding discount model also ensures fiscal prudence

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Listen

A sticker advertising Hong Kong’s transport subsidy scheme for the elderly and passegners with disabilities is displayed on a minubus in Mong Kok on March 23. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:45am, 25 Mar 2026

It says something about the times that in February 2022, compared with now, lowering the age bar from 65 to 60 for the HK$2 transport fare subsidy for the elderly, adding 815,000 beneficiaries, didn’t ring more warning bells about sustainability. It was, after all, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the government was issuing cash vouchers and when public morale and economic confidence were paramount.

Lowering the bar for people at or near the end of normal working life struck an empathetic chord.

But, inevitably, it brought forward the question of sustainability. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced planned changes in his budget speech last year, which the government says will take effect from April 3.

The cost of the scheme, amid an ageing population, was unsustainable. The government has now come up with a simple formula for making changes palatable.

From April 3, the HK$2 fare still applies up to a trip fare of HK$10. At that point, the discount reaches 80 per cent, with the passenger paying 20 per cent.

The discount is then pegged at 80 per cent as journeys and fares increase, meaning a HK$12 journey, for example, will cost HK$2.40, a HK$20 journey HK$4 and so on.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While it remains a valuable aid to social cohesion, the sliding discount model also ensures fiscal prudence

While it remains a valuable aid to social cohesion, the sliding discount model also ensures fiscal prudence