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Nikki Sun

Danny Mok

Hong Kong’s public transport commuters will be given a monthly travel subsidy of as much as HK$300 in an initiative set to be announced on Wednesday morning in Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s maiden policy address, the Post has learned.
Local business operators will also benefit, with the profits tax rate for their first HK$2 million in profits set to be halved to 8.25 per cent.
For the new travel subsidy scheme, the government will use part of the dividends from the MTR Corporation to subsidise Octopus card users who spend at least HK$400 a month on public transport, a government source told South China Morning Post.
Carrie Lam focuses on middle class in maiden Hong Kong policy address
The size of the subsidies will depend on travel expenditure with an upper limit of HK$300, according to the source. It will not be a means-tested scheme.
Lam will give the details of the initiative on Wednesday.
The government holds about 75 per cent of MTR Corp’s shares, and receives about HK$4 billion in annual dividends.
The subsidy scheme, pledged by Lam during the chief executive election campaign earlier this year, is aimed at easing transport burden costs felt by grass-roots workers.
Carrie Lam issues her own 100-day report card and calls her time in office ‘fruitful’




At a campaign rally, Lam had said she expected “hundreds of thousands” of Hongkongers to benefit from the initiative and that it would demonstrate her “new fiscal philosophy”.
At a Forbes CEO conference last month, Lam said her fiscal philosophy was to invest, and that cutting taxes was also a form of investment.
In break with tradition, Carrie Lam to keep maiden policy speech short and answer more questions
“My intention is to reduce the tax burdens on start-ups and SMEs, but to do it without changing the very simple tax system. It’s likely to take this form: for the first HK$2 million of profits of every business, we will charge a rate lower than 16.5 per cent,” she said at the time.
She added that she was working very hard to see if she could go lower than 10 per cent.
Eddy Li Sau-hung, president of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association welcomed the measure to lower profits tax for businesses.
“It is a timely measure to ease the pressure of small businesses who have been struggling from the expensive operational costs and fiercer competition from other markets,” he said.
The move would also accelerate the economic transformation in Hong Kong by nurturing more technology-driven start-ups, Li said.


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Commuters are set to benefit from the travel subsidy. Photo: Felix Wong

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An Octopus card being used in the MTR, Hong Kong’s railway operator. Photo: Felix Wong

General shot of Kowloon Motor Bus at at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Toll Plaza bus stops at Hung Hom. The Executive Council has approved an average fare increase of 4.9 percent for Kowloon Motor Bus. This is lower than the 8.5 percent rise the bus company applied for. 19FEB13

Commuters at Central MTR Station during Monday morning rush hour, a day after the opening of the West Island Line. 29DEC14

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor meets the media before an Executive Council meeting at Central Government Offices in Tamar. 19SEP17 SCMP / Sam Tsang

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Public transport commuters who spend at least HK$400 per month on travel with their Octopus cards will receive as much as HK$300


Carrie Lam

MTR Corporation

Transport and logistics