Delays In Extended HK$2 Ride Scheme 'to Fight Abuse'

The government said plans to allow people aged between 60 and 64 to take public transport for HK$2 would not be in place for another year, and they will have to get a personalised Octopus card in order to benefit.

The idea to widen the HK$2 scheme, which is currently available only to those 65 or above, was first announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam in January last year.

The government has since been pressed to implement the plan as soon as possible. But officials have said preventing abuse is a key obstacle.

In an update to lawmakers at the Legco welfare panel on Monday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the scheme would not be launched until the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest.

He explained that those aged between 60 and 64 will be required to get a personalised Octopus card to be eligible for the concessions.

"Within a short time, we have to issue 600,000 new cards all bearing photos with a specific design. This will take time. So in terms of hardware, software and manpower to deal with the 600,000 cards [newly] issued, it will take a little over a year. This is our best effort," he said.

He said the government also plans to require those 65 or above to change to personalised Octopus cards by 2024, and authorities would then gradually phase out elder, anonymous cards.

But legislators complained about what they see as slow progress.

"There is always a way to speed up the entire matter. When they focus too much on tackling the abuse, they forgot a lot of people are waiting for this sort of benefit that they should have. Why don't they just employ more people to fix the entire system? And of course there are ways to get around these sort of things," DAB lawmaker Holden Chow said.

Another pro-government group, the Federation of Trade Unions, staged a rally on Monday demanding that the extended HK$2 scheme be launched as soon as possible.