The government has announced that it will submit to the legislature for the second time this year a bill to amend the 2022 budget, proposing to allocate 35.1 billion patacas from the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) special reserves to cover its expenditure on COVID-19 prevention and control measures.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong made the announcement during a daily conference by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre on Saturday.
According to Lei, the budget amendment bill will be sent to the Legislative Assembly for an urgent procedure for the bill’s debate and vote, and the government expects to start the payments gradually next month, starting with employees, freelancers and business operators.
The government had already proposed to amend its 2022 budget earlier this month, in which it proposed to allocate 10 billion patacas to ease people’s hardships and businesses’ dire straits.
Lei noted that due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy, the government now proposes to optimise the previous 10 billion pataca financial aid scheme, which would expand the eligibility of employees to benefit from the government’s financial aid by allowing those whose income in 2020 and 2021 combined did not exceed 600,000 patacas, from the previous requirement of no less than 6,000 and no more than 480,000 patacas, with no minimum limit, according to the revised proposal. And those who are unemployed but eligible will also be able to benefit from the pecuniary support.
According to Lei, in response to the ongoing pandemic outbreak, the government will allocate 10 billion patacas for COVID-19 prevention and control measures, and also consider benefiting the elderly, housewives and children, pending the views of the community to be heard and announced in due course.
The government’s financial reserves comprise basic reserves and extraordinary reserves.
The financial reverses of the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) amounted to 613 billion patacas at the end of April, according to data published in the Official Gazette (BO) by the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) last month.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Long speaks during Saturday’s press conference about the government’s latest measures to tackle the city’s current COVID-19 outbreak. – Video grab from GCS
