The government has drafted amendments to its 2025 budget as it now expects this year’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) to amount to 228 billion patacas, a five-percent decrease from the 240 billion patacas initially forecast, Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon announced yesterday.
Cheong, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters yesterday. The budget amendment bill will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) in due course for debate, review and vote.
The amended version of the government’s 2025 budget can only take legal effect after it is passed by the legislature in its second and final reading.
The government drafted its 2025 budget bill, which was passed by the legislature in its second and final reading in December last year, based on its then estimation of Macau’s 2025 GGR to reach 240 billion patacas, or a monthly average of 20 billion patacas, a sum that constituted the main source of budgeted government revenues proposed by the then 2025 budget bill, because of which its 2025 direct gaming tax revenue was expected to amount to 84 billion patacas, i.e., 35 percent of the GGR.
The government predicted, in the then 2025 budget bill, its revenues would reach 121.09 billion patacas in 2025, while its expenditure was forecast to amount to 113.38 billion patacas, resulting in an expected budget surplus of 7.7 billion patacas.
Since earlier this year, the government has repeatedly indicated that due to the GGR’s performance turning out to be weaker than the monthly average of 20 billion patacas that it had targeted for this year, government revenues in 2025 would possibly be lower than initially forecast.
During yesterday’s press conference, Cheong said that after assessing Macau’s current economic situation as well as its gaming industry’s performance since early this year, the government has now lowered its estimation of this year’s GGR to 228 billion patacas, or a monthly average of 19 billion patacas, from the 240 billion patacas initially forecast, or a monthly average of 20 billion patacas.
Because of the now expected GGR of 228 billion patacas this year, according to the amended 2025 budget bill, the government’s 2025 direct gaming tax revenue is now expected to amount to 79.8 billion patacas, i.e., 35 percent of the GGR.
Moreover, Cheong said, the government now expects an increase in its budgeted expenditure for this year, with the aim of ensuring the effective implementation of its policies and measures laid out by its 2025 Policy Address, according to which the government plans to increase its spending on allowances and subsidies for those in vulnerable groups as well as on scientific and technological research and development projects, while it plans to make phased payments to the ongoing construction of the University of Macau’s (UM) new campus in Hengqin, which got off the ground late last year.
Consequently, Cheong said, the government now expects, in the amended 2025 budget bill, its revenues to reach 116.53 billion patacas in 2025, while its expenditure is expected to amount to 116.24 billion patacas, resulting in an expected budget surplus of about 290 million patacas.
The government’s revised budget revenue is 4.56 billion patacas lower than the initially expected one, while its budgeted expenditure is now 2.86 billion patacas higher than the initially budgeted one.
According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau’s (DICJ) website, Macau’s total GGR in the first five months of this year amounted to 97.707 billion patacas, equivalent to 19.541 billion patacas per month on average, just up 1.7 percent from the first five months of last year.
According to the DICJ website, Macau’s GGR stood at 18.254 billion patacas, 19.744 billion patacas, 19.659 billion patacas and 18.858 billion patacas in January, February, March and April this year respectively, all lower than 20 billion patacas, while last month’s GGR amounted to 21.193 billion patacas.
Meanwhile, Financial Services Bureau (DSF) Deputy Director Daisy Ho In Mui said during yesterday’s press conference that according to information provided by the University of Macau, the construction project of its new campus in Hengqin is scheduled to be carried out until 2030, with a total budget of seven billion yuan, equivalent to 8.4 billion patacas.
Ho said that according to its amended 2025 budget, the government plans to pay 1.75 billion patacas this year to the ongoing construction of the project.
Cheong elaborates on revamped wealth-sharing scheme
Meanwhile, during yesterday’s press conference, Cheong also elaborated on the government’s revamped wealth-sharing programme, saying that while, in principle, the scheme has been carried out over the years on a provisional basis rather than a permanent basis, the government has decided to continue the scheme as it is an important policy of improving residents’ well-being, with the aim of enhancing their “sense of belonging, sense of happiness, and sense of fulfilment”.
Commenting on the newly launched 183-day-minimum-stay requirement, Cheong said that comments made on social media, claiming that a local resident had to stay in Macau for at least eight hours a day in order to be regarded as having stayed here on that day, are wrong, Cheong noted that a local resident who stays in Macau for any length of time a day is officially regarded as having stayed here on that day.
Financial Services Bureau (DSF) Deputy Director Daisy Ho In Mui (left) speaks during yesterday’s press conference at Government Headquarters about the government’s 2025 budget amendment bill as Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon looks on. – Photo: Tony Wong
