Fifty per cent discounts and free transit at 70: the new 2025 law

It is the law that gathered into one statute the discounts that used to live in two old laws, and repealed them. It gives 50% off shows held in government facilities and off the public transport municipalities and agencies provide, and free transport from age 70. Most useful for anyone who has spent years fighting over a card: the law expressly says the right does not depend on holding a specific card.

An older adult, which the law defines as any natural person sixty (60) years of age or older. And a person with functional diversity, which the law defines as any person who has a physical, cognitive, mental or sensory impairment substantially limiting one or more essential life activities; or who has a history or medical record of a physical, mental or sensory impairment; or is regarded as having a physical, mental or sensory impairment; and further includes any person with a mental, cognitive, sensory, physical or any other impairment covered by federal Public Law No. 106-402, known as the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights of 2000. For the show and transport discounts the law additionally asks that you be a Puerto Rico resident and duly identified. Free transport is for persons seventy (70) or older.

• To be an older adult sixty (60) or older, or a person with functional diversity as the law defines it.Verified against the official source
• To be a Puerto Rico resident and duly identified. The law recognises as valid any proof of age, medical certificate or official document accrediting the condition or the age.Verified against the official source
• For the show discount: to show identification at entry to the event for which the discount was received.Verified against the official source
• For free transport: to be seventy (70) or older and duly identified.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: No specific card is needed

   It is the sentence that settles the most common fight at the box office, and the law writes it without conditions: “For purposes of verifying rights, any proof of age, medical certificate or official document accrediting the person’s condition or age shall be recognised as valid, without limiting the exercise of the rights conferred here to possession of a specific card.”

2. 2

   Step 2: 50% off shows, including when a private party organises them

   The scope is what gets argued most, so here it is in full. The right is to “one (1) ticket at a fifty per cent (50%) discount off the admission price to every show, cultural, artistic, recreational or sporting activity held in facilities provided by the agencies, departments, public corporations or dependencies of the Government of Puerto Rico and of its political or municipal subdivisions, whether organised by the governmental entity owning the facilities or by a private organisation or producer, or even when the facilities are operated by a private entity or organisation, and this must be established in every contract.” A private promoter does not remove the discount: what governs is where it is held.

3. 3

   Step 3: In any section, and at purchase

   Two precisions that stop you being sent to the worst seat or to a separate line. “The discount off the regular admission price shall be honoured at the moment of ticket purchase at any authorised establishment, regardless of the area or section the beneficiary selects.” And then: “The beneficiary must show their identification at entry to the event for which they received the discount.”

4. 4

   Step 4: The two limits the law sets

   Worth knowing so you do not lose the ticket at the door. “Requesting discounted tickets for different events to be held on the same date and time as other previously requested activities is prohibited.” And: “requesting more than one (1) ticket for an activity is prohibited when several identical functions or presentations of it are held on different dates or times.”

5. 5

   Step 5: How many tickets are reserved, and the text’s contradiction

   Here the law contradicts itself and we say so rather than pick a number. The discount section provides: “A minimum of five per cent (5%) of the total tickets destined for sale per function shall be reserved.” The signage section, however, orders the sign to carry “the warning that a minimum of ten per cent (10%) of the total tickets destined for sale, per function, shall be reserved.” Five in one, ten in the other, for the same reservation. If you must claim, cite both. On leftovers the law is clear: reserved tickets unsold “on or before five (5) days prior to the function” may be sold to the general public at regular price, and that term “shall not apply when the tickets are put on sale within a period of five (5) days or less prior to the function or sporting event.”

6. 6

   Step 6: Transport: 50%, and free from age 70

   They are two separate mandates in the same section. The first orders all municipalities, agencies, departments, dependencies, political subdivisions and any other instrumentality of the Government “to grant every older adult and/or person with functional diversity, duly identified, a fifty per cent (50%) discount off the price of every public transport service they provide.” The second orders them “to grant free of cost the right of admission to every person seventy (70) or older, duly identified, to every public transport service such municipalities, agencies or government dependencies provide, whether maritime or land.”

7. 7

   Step 7: The sign and what the ticket must say

   It helps you claim on the spot. The law orders that at every show or activity in government facilities and on every public transport service those agencies provide “a visible placard, sign, notice or announcement shall be posted, indicating the admission discount percentage to which every older adult and/or person with functional diversity is entitled,” along with the warning about the ticket reservation. And it adds: “All tickets or entry stubs must read on the back the fifty per cent (50%) discount benefit to which every older adult and/or person with functional diversity is entitled and must be distinguished graphically or textually from any other ticket.”

8. 8

   Step 8: The new identification: a symbol on the licence

   This is the substantive change, and it explains why the law moved away from the Health Department card. “The Department of Transportation and Public Works shall identify the population of older adults and persons with functional diversity by integrating a distinctive symbol into the Driver’s Licence, Identification Card or any other official credential issued by a state or federal governmental authority.” The law adds the Department “may coordinate with the Department of Health and other pertinent agencies the digitisation of this identification through technological platforms such as CESCO Digital or equivalents,” and that in coordination with CESCO it shall establish the technological and administrative mechanisms to integrate the symbol into the virtual and physical identification, ensure interoperability and the protection of personal information, and provide training to authorised personnel.

9. 9

   Step 9: Your old card stays valid in the meantime

   It is the part that keeps you from losing the right during the transition, and the law writes it expressly. The Secretary adopts the regulations within one hundred twenty (120) days and the Department must implement the new identification system in that same term. “Meanwhile, the identification cards issued under Acts No. 107-1998 and 108 of June 12, 1985, as amended, shall remain in force, as shall the certifications issued by the Department of Health, for purposes of the continued enjoyment of the rights recognised here.” And it adds that the Secretary “shall establish regulations guaranteeing the orderly transition from the current system to the new identification mechanism without interruption of benefits.”

10. 10

    Step 10: What it repealed and what it amended

    Worth knowing because a lot of old references circulate. “By this Act, Act No. 108 of July 12, 1985, as amended, and Act 107-1998, as amended, are repealed.” Those were the two laws that previously gave the show and public transport discounts. And separately this Act amended Article 3 of Act 297-2018, the express service line and priority turn cession act; that change is already carried in our priority-line guide and we do not repeat it here.

There is no prior application: the discount is claimed at the box office at the moment of purchase, and the identification is shown at entry. The new identification is integrated by the Department of Transportation and Public Works into the driver’s licence, the identification card or any other official credential, in coordination with CESCO. While that happens, the law keeps the old cards and the Health Department certifications in force. If your matter is the express line and priority turn, that is Act 297-2018 and it has its own guide here.

• Believing there is no right without the Health Department card: the law recognises any proof of age, medical certificate or official document.
• Accepting that the discount does not apply because the promoter is private: what governs is that the show be held in facilities provided by the government or its subdivisions.
• Letting yourself be sent to a specific section: the law honours the discount regardless of the area or section you select.
• Not showing identification at entry: the law expressly asks for it for the event whose discount you received.
• Asking for several tickets for identical functions on different dates: the law expressly prohibits it.
• Paying for municipal public transport at age 70 or older: the law orders it granted free of cost, maritime or land.
• Throwing away the old card: the law keeps it in force while the Department implements the new symbol.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov