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Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (October 24):
Question:
The concessionary fare scheme (the scheme) put forward by the Government of the last term for elderly people aged 65 or above and eligible persons with disabilities which enables them to travel on trains, buses and ferries at a concessionary fare of $2 per trip was launched on June 28 this year. The scheme initially covered MTR's domestic services and was extended to the bus services provided by four franchised bus companies on August 5; it is expected to extend to the services of the Lantau buses and over 20 ferry lines early next year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the daily average number of person-trips benefitting from the scheme and the daily average amount of subsidies provided to the various public transport operators since the implementation of the scheme, with a breakdown by mode of transportation from Monday to Sunday; the expected annual number of person-trips benefitting from the scheme and the amount of public expenditure incurred annually;
(b) whether an initial review has been conducted on the implementation of the scheme; if so, of the result; as it has been reported that some elderly people have complained that after the implementation of the scheme they have to pay more for the fares, whether the authorities have received related complaints and looked into such situation; whether the situation involves the scheme's failure to dovetail with the existing interchange concession schemes; whether any public transport operators have, after the implementation of the scheme, cancelled the interchange concessions and other concessions previously provided, resulting in the elderly people having to pay more for the fares, and taken advantage of the opportunity to obtain more government subsidies; how the authorities will follow up such situation; and
(c) whether the authorities will consider afresh extending the scheme to cover more target beneficiaries (e.g. covering people with a lower degree of disabilities and disabled children aged below 12) and more modes of transportation (e.g. green mini-bus); if so, of the lead time required, according to the estimation of the authorities, for applying the technologies, as well as putting in place the data management and settlement platform involved, and the expected time for implementing the extended scheme at the earliest?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Frederick Fung's question is as follows:
(a) Under the Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities (the Scheme), the Government will use a Centralised Settlement Platform tailor-made for the Scheme to obtain accurate daily patronage record for calculating, on an accountable basis, the fare revenue forgone that needs to be reimbursed to the public transport operators concerned. To benefit the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities soonest possible, while time has to be taken to develop the Centralised Settlement Platform, the Government has already implemented the Scheme on the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) on June 28 this year, and extended the Scheme to four franchised bus companies (namely the Kowloon Motor Bus, Citybus, New World First Bus and Long Win Bus) on August 5. Since the staff of the Transport Department have to prudently and directly examine the applications made to them by public transport operators on an accountable basis for reimbursement of their revenue forgone, the process takes time. The initial data show that by the end of August this year, the daily average number of beneficiaries who used the abovementioned public transport and enjoyed the $2 concessionary fare was about 608 000.
The Government is closely liaising with the New Lantao Bus and ferry operators for further extending the Scheme to these operators in around the first quarter of 2013. The Government estimates that the amount of revenue forgone to be reimbursed to the public transport operators concerned would be around $400.1 million in 2013-14 when the Scheme is fully implemented. In estimating the revenue forgone, we have taken into account the projected growth in elderly population and the number of eligible persons with disabilities. However, we do not have adequate information to factor in additional patronage induced by the Scheme, the impact of future fare adjustments and other changing circumstances.
Besides, we estimate that there would be an annual recurrent administration and staff expenditure of more than $20 million, which is mainly for the employment of auditors to audit the operators' reimbursement applications for fare revenue forgone that needs to be reimbursed and relevant internal monitoring system (including the computer system), as well as for conducting patronage record checks and other anti-abuse measures.
(b) We have been monitoring the implementation of the Scheme and will conduct a comprehensive review of the Scheme three years after it has been fully implemented to assess the long-term financial, transport and welfare implications.
Under the Scheme, the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities can travel on designated public transport at $2 per trip. If the fare of the designated transport service is above $2, the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities need only to pay at most $2 per trip. The Government will absorb the difference between the nominal fare and $2.
With the introduction of the Scheme, the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities will only pay less when they travel on the public transport covered by the Scheme. For cases quoted in the question on a "higher fare paid by the elderly", as we are aware, different franchised bus companies offer different fare concessions according to their operating conditions. This is an arrangement beyond the Scheme. Before the launch of the Scheme, bus operators offered the "$2 Holiday Fare Discount for the Elderly" (Holiday Fare Discount) mainly through the Passenger Reward Arrangement to enable the elderly to travel on buses at $2 concessionary fare a trip on Sundays and public holidays. If an interchange was involved in a journey, bus companies, when calculating the second trip holiday concessionary fare for the elderly, would deduct the interchange discount from the $2 fare offered under the Holiday Fare Discount. Nevertheless, as the balance of the Passenger Reward Arrangement was exhausted, bus companies have ceased the Holiday Fare Discount since July 29, 2012.
After cessation of the bus companies' Holiday Fare Discount, elderly passengers should have been paying the same fare on holidays as that on other days, i.e. a higher fare compared to that under the Holiday Fare Discount. However, as the Government has extended the Scheme to the four franchised bus companies since August 5, 2012 (the first Sunday after the Holiday Fare Discount has expired), the elderly passengers now only need to pay at most $2 per trip on any days. This adheres to the principle of the Scheme, i.e. with the implementation of the Scheme, beneficiaries will not need to pay a fare higher than that before the launch of the Scheme.
(c) The Scheme aims to help build a caring and inclusive society by encouraging the elderly and eligible persons with disabilities to participate more in community activities. When determining the coverage of persons with disabilities under the Scheme, consideration has been given to the past deliberations of the "Subcommittee to Study the Transport Needs and Provision of Concessionary Public Transport Fares for Persons with Disabilities" (the Subcommittee). After rounds of discussion and having regard to the views of persons with disabilities and public transport operators, the Subcommittee was of the view that recipients under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme aged between 12 and 64 with 100% disabilities and recipients of the Disability Allowance of the same age group are most in need of assistance and encouragement for social integration. The MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) has also launched a fare concession scheme for this same group of persons with disabilities since 2009. The group of eligible persons with disabilities under the Scheme has been defined against the above background and considerations.
As we are aware, various major public transport operators are currently offering fare concessions to children aged below 12, and children aged 3 or below are given free rides. MTRCL is also offering free rides to children aged between 3 and 11 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays during the period between July 28 and December 30, 2012. Having said that, we are studying the feasibility of extending the Scheme to children with 100% disabilities aged below 12.
For the suggestion of including green minibuses into the Scheme, the Government has already set up a working group with the green minibus trade to study the feasibility. The Working Group is also studying the technical and detailed arrangements involved, including accounting, auditing and enabling the green minibus operators to use the Centralised Settlement Platform to apply for the Government's reimbursement of the revenue forgone arising from the implementation of the Scheme; the technical enhancement for the green minibuses' fare collection system; and feasible anti-abuse measures. There are at present quite a large number of green minibus operators. Many of them are of small-scale with different modes of operation and financial positions. We expect that it will take time to study in detail and to discuss with the trade the above technical and implementation details.
Ends/Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Issued at HKT 13:09
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