The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday passed the government’s 2021 budget amendment bill, which will enable the government to allocate 9.1 billion patacas from the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) extraordinary reserves for the government to fund its various measures to promote the economy and support employment and residents’ livelihoods.
It was the first time that the government had asked lawmakers to pass an amendment to its budget for this year so that it can adjust its expenditure in response to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents.
As the government had requested an urgent procedure for the debate and vote of the bill, it was not, as is normal practice, arranged for review by any of the legislature’s standing committees before its final article-by-article debate and vote. Therefore, after the outline of the bill was passed during yesterday’s plenary session, its final article-by-article debate and vote were immediately carried out. The lawmakers unanimously passed the bill article-by-article.
The 2021 budget amendment bill will also enable the government to cover its expenditures that it has used for COVID-19 prevention and control measures and for the construction of facilities on the Macau-side checkpoint zone of the mainland-Macau joint border checkpoint in Hengqin – which came into use in August last year.
The government announced last month its various measures aiming to support employment, the local economy and people’s livelihoods this year, consisting of four parts, namely 1) bringing its annual wealth-sharing scheme forward to this month from July as in previous years; 2) boosting local consumption such as through the upcoming electronic consumption subsidy and discount scheme, 3) upgrading its subsidy scheme to improve residents’ occupational skills, and 4) tax relief and exemption measures.
Except for its measure to bring the annual wealth-sharing scheme forward to this month, the other three parts of the government’s 2021 various support measures required amendments to its 2021 budget so that they can get off the ground.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong introduced the outline of the amendment bill during yesterday’s plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle.
Lei said that the government expects Macau’s economy to steadily recover with the government’s COVID-19 vaccinations being carried out and its ongoing “normalised” COVID-19 prevention work.
However, during the recovery the government will still need to roll out measures to grant financial support to residents “in line with civil society’s need”, Lei said.
Lei pointed out that the government announced last month its various measures aiming to support employment, the local economy and people’s livelihoods, including its electronic consumption benefit scheme, adding that the government announced the “optimised” version of its electronic consumption benefit scheme earlier this month after listening to a wide range of opinions from civil society.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong (centre) addresses yesterday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. Photo: GCS
