The government has announced that it will submit a bill amending its budget for this year for the third time to the legislature, proposing to allocate 6.34 billion patacas from the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) extraordinary reserves so as to cover its expenditure during the remainder of this year.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday. Cheong said that the government will request an urgent procedure for the debate and vote of the bill.
If the Legislative Assembly (AL) approves the request, the bill will not be sent for review by any of its standing committees before its final article-by-article debate and vote, which is slated to be immediately carried out after its outline is passed in an upcoming plenary session scheduled for its debate and vote.
Cheong noted that due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy, Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) stood at 72.1 billion patacas in the first 10 months of this year, which he said was far below the government’s initial forecast for the whole year’s gross gaming revenue of 130 billion patacas. Cheong said that the government “finds it difficult to be optimistic” about the gaming revenues it now expects to receive for the remainder of this year.
Macau’s gaming operators pay 35 percent of their gross gaming revenues as direct tax to the government. Besides, they also pay an additional four to five percent of their gross receipts as so-called “contributions” (dues) into the public coffers for a string of social, cultural and other causes.
In response to the situation, Cheong said, the MSAR government has taken various measures to further cut its expenditure, such as ordering various public entities to cut unnecessary expenditures during the remainder of the year. However, Cheong said, the government expects to be still unable to keep a balanced budget between expenditure and revenues.
Consequently, Cheong said, the government proposes to allocate 6.341 billion patacas from its extraordinary reserves so as to fill the deficit – i.e., to keep a formally balanced budget.
The Executive Council said in a follow-up statement on Friday that in its latest assessment, the government now forecasts this year’s gross gaming revenues to reach 86 billion patacas.
The government had already proposed to amend its 2021 budget twice earlier this year. In the first amended budget, which was passed by the legislature in April, the government allocated 9.1 billion patacas from its extraordinary reserves in order to fund its various measures to promote the economy and support employment and residents’ livelihoods, including the government’s ongoing electronic consumption benefit scheme. In the second amended budget, which was passed by lawmakers early this month, the government allocated 2.3 billion patacas from its extraordinary reserves to cover its latest financial support measures for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local employees.
The government’s financial reserves comprise basic reserves and extraordinary reserves.
Consequently, the government has allocated 11.4 billion patacas from its extraordinary reserves to the two previously amended 2021 budgets.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon (right) and Financial Services Bureau (DSF) Deputy Director Daisy Ho In Mui address Friday’s Executive Council press conference at Government Headquarters about the government’s third 2021 budget amendment bill. Photo courtesy of TDM
