Lawmaker-cum-nurse Wong Kit Cheng, who heads the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) Follow-up Committee for Public Finance Affairs, said yesterday that the government’s fiscal reserves amounted to 597.31 billion patacas as of June this year, a decrease of 45.85 billion patacas compared to that at the end of last year.
During a press conference in the Legislative Assembly building after the committee’s closed-door meeting yesterday, Wong revealed details of a report about the government’s implementation of its budget in the first six months of the year.
According to Wong, of the 45.85 billion patacas decrease, 17.4 billion pataca were investment losses, 31.7 billion patacas were allocated from the Macau Special Administrative Region’s (MSAR) special reserves to cover the government’s expenditure on COVID-19 prevention and control measures, as well as easing people’s hardships and businesses’ dire straits, while 3.2 billion patacas – last year’s central budget surplus – was put into the public coffers.
The fiscal reserves recorded an investment loss of 17.4 billion patacas in the first half of this year, with a loss of 7.63 billion patacas from investments by the Social Security Fund (FSS) and 1.91 billion patacas from the Pension Fund (FP), according to Wong.
Wong quoted the committee members’ concern about the losses and financial situation of the two funds, as well as the investment and financial situation of specific government entities.
Wong also quoted the committee members’ questions about the detailed investment situation in the first half of the year and whether adjustments would be made to the investment portfolio in the future.
Wong quoted the government as saying that the decrease in investments was largely due to the continued volatility of global investment conditions in the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, the committee also followed up on the government’s Investment and Development Expenditure Plan (PIDDA).
Wong said that the initial budget for the 2022 PIDDA was 18.32 billion patacas, while its approved budget was 18.53 billion patacas, with actual expenditure of 6.54 billion patacas as of the end of second quarter of this year, representing a budget execution rate of 35.3 percent.
Wong also said that 43 PIDDA projects recorded a project execution rate of zero percent in the second quarter, including the Macau Public Security Forces’ (FSM) smart policing project, which Wong quoted government officials as saying during yesterday’s meeting was due to the complexity and high technical content of the design tender procedures, part of which, however, had already been carried out in an orderly manner and was expected to have made progress in the third quarter.
Lawmaker-cum-nurse Wong Kit Cheng, who heads the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) Follow-up Committee for Public Finance Affairs, addresses yesterday’s press conference in the Legislative Assembly building after the committee’s closed-door meeting. – Photo courtesy of TDM
