Ride on! Alipay joins fare subsidy scheme

Ayra Wang

AlipayHK will be incorporated into the Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme starting January 1, the Transport Department announced yesterday.

Hongkongers will be able to pay for their daily commutes with the AlipayHK mobile wallet on the MTR, buses, trams, 11 ferry routes and 175 green minibus routes, and they will be subsidized for one-third of their monthly public transport expenses in excess of HK$400, subject to a maximum subsidy of HK$400 every month.

The department said this will give members of the public an extra electronic payment option under the scheme, which began in 2019.

"When public traveling on major transport services pay for single journey fares with AlipayHK EasyGo or take MTR services by using the QR Code on the MTR mobile application with AlipayHK as the payment source, the relevant fares will be eligible for the calculation of public transport fare subsidies," the department said in a statement.

Fares paid using the AlipayHK wallet for MTR routes - excluding Airport Express and Light Rail - as well as franchised buses including Citybus, Kowloon Motor Bus, Long Win Bus and New Lantao Bus will be eligible for calculation of government transport subsidies.

The e-payment wallet will also be accepted on 11 designated ferry routes run by Sun Ferry, Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry, Star Ferry, Discovery Bay Ferry and Fortune Ferry.

However, the expenses under AlipayHK and Octopus will be separately recorded, and thus cannot be combined for the calculation of subsidies.

At the same time, the application cannot currently support the purchase of monthly transport or day passes.

Lawmaker Ben Chan Han-pan, who also chairs the Legislative Council panel on transport, supported the move and said it will encourage more residents to use electronic payments. "I've [conveyed] to the government before that if some e-payment methods cannot be included in the subsidy scheme, it will suppress e-payment use in disguise," Chan said.

He also called on the government to work with relevant parties on developing the AlipayHK wallet to support purchasing various tickets and include more e-payment platforms in the public transport fare subsidy scheme.

AlipayHK chief executive officer Venetia Lee Wing-sze said yesterday that over one million Hongkongers used the AlipayHK app to pay for transport fees in the past year.

"The inclusion allows over 4.2 million active AlipayHK users to not only travel with a single app but also easily benefit from the government subsidies," Lee said.

She added that the inclusion will help further Hong Kong's vision of becoming a smart city.

Lee said that from the 16th of each month, users can collect the previous month's transport subsidy via the app with one click, and if they activate the "automatic collection" function, the subsidy will automatically be deposited into the users' AlipayHK accounts.

"Citizens won't have to collect the subsidies at designated collection points and they can also instantly view monthly transport expenses and eligible subsidy amounts via the app," Lee added, and said the company will continue to expand the app's use on more public transport routes.

ayra.wang@singtaonewscorp.com