The government will set no upper limit in funding a HK$2 fare scheme for the elderly but it has yet to tell taxpayers how much the new welfare policies announced on Thursday will cost them.
In the policy address by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the government proposed allowing residents aged 65 or above and some of the disabled to travel on general MTR lines, franchised buses and ferries at any time for a uniform fare of HK$2 a trip.
It also plans to allow local elderly people who live in Guangdong to receive the old age allowance, without the need to come back to Hong Kong as they are now required to do for at least 60 days.
The schemes are expected to be launched by the end of next year and 2013 respectively.
Labour and Welfare Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said yesterday it was hard to estimate how many would apply for the Guangdong scheme.
In a survey by the Census and Statistics Department earlier this year, 34,000 elderly people expressed an interest in moving to the mainland and some 90 per cent were likely to choose Guangdong, Cheung said.
Another 78,200 of the aged stayed both on the mainland and in Hong Kong during the year, down from 88,000 in 2007.
