Bus companies taking mean advantage
Starting early next year four of Hong Kong's major bus operators will scrap the three-year-old return fare concessions and senior citizen fare reductions that allow the elderly to travel for a flat $2 on Sundays and public holidays. This will be an extremely unwelcome and unwise decision, hurting people's livelihood and jeopardizing social harmony. It also goes completely against the Government's principle of helping the community ride out hardships and thus is to be criticised by society.
Agreement on the fare concessions for same-day-return trips and for the elderly on holidays was reached in February 2006 after negotiations between the four bus operators and the then Environment, Transport and Works Bureau (now Transport and Housing Bureau). But what should not be forgotten is that a "bus fare adjustment mechanism" was also introduced at the same time, and three bus companies - Kowloon Motor Bus, Citybus and New Lantao Bus - also had their franchises renewed for another 10 years. But now, just three years later, while the "downward adjustment mechanism" has yet to be triggered, the "upward adjustment" is imminent. It is even harder to understand how this is considered a right time for an "upward adjustment" when unemployment is going up and household income going down since, according to the mechanism, bus fare adjustment must be made with reference to factors affecting people's livelihood such as the consumer price index (CPI).
For millions of bus passengers, the so-called "cancellation of fare concessions" in fact is a fare hike in a disguised form. Taking the same-day-return trip for example, with the concession scraped, the round trip fare on bus route No 967 from Tin Shui Wai to Central or Admiralty will jump to $42.8 from $38.5 - a passenger will have to pay $4, or 10%, more per day. A low-income worker will have to spend an additional $1,000 or more on the bus transport per month. Thus a household may have to pay an additional $3,000 or even more, with two adults going out to work and two children to go to school. With the remainder of its income, it still has to pay for housing rent, food, water and electricity charges, medical care…so where can it find extra money for entertainment or other consumptions?
Similarly, scraping the $2 fare reduction for the elderly on holidays has a more direct "killing power". For many low-income senior citizens, the $2 reduction on holidays is simply like some "god-given" benefit. They would wait for such a day in a week to go out shopping, meeting relatives or visiting their grandchildren. With the concession gone, these senior citizens, for whom every penny counts, will have to cut down on outings or even refrain from going out at all.
However, does cutting outings for residents and senior citizens accord with the intention of government measures to boost consumption and stimulate the economy? Does this agree with the government appeal (to citizens) "to cross the river on the same boat", with the enterprise spirit and enterprise social responsibility? It can be concluded that if in future the Government would agree to issue $500 or $1,000 consumption vouchers to each citizen, the effect of such a "benevolent policy" would certainly be weakened by the cancellation of the bus fare concessions. Even if grassroots citizens were given consumption vouchers worth several hundred dollars, most of it would be taken away by transport. A household would even be "loss making" if its members went out more.
To justify the cancellation of the fare concessions, executives of the bus companies no doubt could present a lot of reasons and statistics such as oil price hikes, increases of charges of cross-harbour tunnels and of labour costs. But oil prices have dropped sharply lately. Some bus operators have also announced they would not raise pay for their employees. Therefore, their future operations costs will be more under control and reduced. More importantly, under their franchise agreements, bus companies enjoy the protection for their "earnable profits". With such advantages in business operation, they should be more obliged to take up their social responsibility. In a time when employers of quite a few small-and medium-sized enterprises are racking their brains and making all efforts to broaden income sources and reduce expenditures so as not to victimize their employees, franchised bus companies want to cruelly put their customers and citizens at their mercy. Where is their enterprise social responsibility? Where is their enterprise conscience? In some Mainland cities, senior citizens need to pay no bus fares. In Hong Kong, in contrast, the bus operators now even want to take back such a tiny token of "respecting the elderly" as the $2 holiday fare reduction. Isn't this too cruel a move?11 December 2008
