Remarks by SEE and STL at media session after third reading debate on Appropriation Bill 2026 (with photo/video)
******************************************************************************************
Reporter: Could you briefly talk more about the considerations for introducing the subsidy forminibuses, school buses and taxis using petroleum gas? How would the Government ensure that oil companies and distributors would not mark up their prices under the diesel subsidy arrangement offered by the Government?
Secretary for Environment and Ecology: Our subsidy scheme includes an agreement with the oil companies or the distributors. Under the agreement, they are obliged to submit reports to the Government on a weekly basis about the sources of the oil, the sales volume, the prices, etc, as well as after the scheme, they have to conduct an independent audit to verify all that information. Because the Government knows the price of the oil they buy from the external sources, therefore we can monitor all the changes in oil prices and we know what the changes are. Therefore, with the reporting and auditing system, we are very confident that the oil companies will not be able to rip off the subsidy.
Secretary for Transport and Logistics: Public minibuses and taxis are two important components of our public transport system. On the other hand, we have also minibuses providing student service. In order to ensure that they will continue to maintain a stable and steady service for the general members of the public, we will redeploy internal resources within the Government to provide the $0.5 subsidy per litre for the petroleum supplier companies' usage.
We will discuss amongst ourselves and identify suitable resources, so as to ensure the measure can be rolled out as soon as possible.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Ends/Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Issued at HKT 17:12
Issued at HKT 17:12
NNNN
