Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme

Launched on 1 January 2019, the Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme (公共交通費用補貼計劃) is Hong Kong's blanket answer to high commuting costs — it asks nothing of riders except that they keep tapping the same Octopus or the same AlipayHK account, with no application form, no means test and no age cutoff of any kind. Once a calendar month's public transport spending on one Octopus card crosses a threshold, the government picks up one-third of everything above that line, capped at $400 a month per card. That threshold moved recently: after sitting at $400 for years, it rose to $500 with effect from 1 June 2025, while the one-third rate and the $400 cap stayed put — so the practical effect of the June 2025 change was to raise the bar before the subsidy kicks in, trimming everyone's rebate slightly. AlipayHK's EasyGo QR users get the identical formula run on a separate, non-combinable ledger — an Octopus and an AlipayHK account cannot pool expenses to hit the threshold faster, and neither can two Octopus cards. Coverage rides on daily automatic recording: MTR (including Light Rail and MTR Bus for Octopus, though AlipayHK's version excludes those two), the four big franchised bus companies, tram, most ferries, every green minibus, and specific approved routes of red minibuses, kaitos and residents'/employees' services. Cash fares, single-journey MTR and high-speed-rail tickets, Airport Express Same Day Return tickets, tourist tickets and non-franchised prepaid bus tickets never count toward the monthly total. The subsidy is never instant: each month's figure is calculated from the previous month's spending, and the money only becomes collectible starting the 16th of the following month — commuters then have to actively go get it, by tapping at a Subsidy Collection Point in an MTR/Light Rail station or designated ferry pier, through the Octopus App, or at participating 7-Eleven, Circle K or Wellcome outlets (no purchase required); AlipayHK users collect through their own app, manually or via an "Automatic Collection" toggle. Anyone who doesn't collect within three months permanently forfeits that month's subsidy. Crucially, it stacks with the $2 Scheme — a $2 Scheme beneficiary's already-discounted fares still count in full toward this scheme's monthly total, so the two subsidies compound rather than compete. And despite what's sometimes assumed, no Personalised Octopus of any kind is required for any of this — an ordinary, everyday Octopus works fine; the only Octopus-side exclusion is short-term "temporary" deposit cards, not regular ones.