Labour and welfare chief Chris Sun on Thursday said it will take time for the authorities to prepare for changes to the HK$2 transport subsidy scheme, which will be implemented no later than September next year.

As outlined in the budget delivered by Financial Secretary Paul Chan the day before, instead of a flat HK$2 fare, eligible commuters will have to pay 20 percent of any standard fare surpassing HK$10.

At a press briefing, Sun said the government wants to ensure all 17,000 Octopus readers in the city are properly set up for the "HK$2 flat rate cum 80 per cent discount" scheme, which will take time.

He said the machines are spread out on the MTR, buses, minibuses and resident coaches, and adjustments can only be made one-by-one at the end of the day.

The welfare minister also said changes to the subsidy scheme were made after careful discussions among officials.

“We believe we have struck a right balance between, first of all, to preserve as far as possible the very reasons of introducing a HK$2 concession fare scheme, which is to encourage our elderly and the disabled to go out and to see for themselves the beauty of the outside world and also to remain socially connected, and secondly, to make sure the concession fare scheme will be fiscally sustainable into the future,” he said.

As for the proposed monthly cap of 240 trips, Sun said only 360 people were found to have exceeded that number each month between August to November, amounting to less than 1 percent of all such users, so most other elderly and disabled travellers won't be affected.

Separately, Sun said his bureau has invited the 177 non-profit organisations (NGOs) that receive government funding for a meeting next Monday to discuss a proposed 7 percent cut in recurrent government spending through the 2027-28 financial year.

“We’ll let them know [how] exactly we’re going to work together to achieve the efficiency gains and yet at the same time providing more flexibility to our NGOs,” he said. "Right now I'm not in a position to provide you with a detailed breakdown."