The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday approved a new amendment to the 2022 government budget that aims to reinforce the public accounts with money from the financial reserves to address the current pandemic situation.
The request for a new amendment to the 2022 budget is intended to fill the gap created by additional government expenses and fund the previously-announced 10 billion pataca package of measures aiming to assist workers and companies suffering as a result of the control measures enforced to contain the local outbreak.
Although the bill was passed, several lawmakers expressed disagreement with the methods chosen by the government to address the problem as well as expressed serious doubts that such measures can effectively help to resolve the problems in society.
Among the most highlighted concerns was the fact that the conditions imposed by the bill for the attribution of cash handouts will exclude many residents who might have been working during the previous two years (2020 and 2021) but who are currently unemployed or have been laid-off and need help; and mostly that the measures said to aim to support the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are too frail to be able to provide any effective “lifebuoy” to most of them.
Among the critics was Ella Lei, one of the lawmakers who represents the interests of workers, who accused Lei Wai Nong of presenting a bill amendment that aims only achieve legal compliance more than to provide effective support for people.
“It seems like this bill is more a way for the government to balance its accounts and legalize the spending that it is already doing than a means to effectively support the population,” Ella Lei said. “Many people cannot meet the requirements, but they are effectively in a situation akin to unemployment, as they cannot go to work.”
For the lawmaker, the measures were poorly drafted and do not take into account all the new businesses created in the last few years. Such businesses cannot benefit from the provided support, she said, referring to measures aimed at liberal professions as well as shop owners and other self-employed professionals.
The lawmaker called on the government to find “real” measures to “effectively solve the problem” of the many unemployed, underemployed, and workers whose wages have been suspended due to the mandatory closure of their workplaces.
Another lawmaker from the sector, Leong Sun Iok, followed Ella Lei’s remarks, calling on the government to do more for the local workers.
Leong noted that part of the budgetary reinforcement covers an 18% increase in overtime payments to civil servants who are performing Covid-19-related duties. The lawmaker proposed that the government hire local unemployed people to perform some of these tasks to avoid overloading civil servants with extra work and also divert these funds to needier people.
Also addressing the measures aimed at liberal professions, Leong said that the government has proposed to apply a single solution to a wide range of unrelated circumstances and jobs – naming shopkeepers, tour guides, taxi drivers, among others – each of which are affected to very different degrees by the crisis.
The same lawmaker also urged the government to exercise more control over price inflation on essential goods, claiming that if the population is already suffering from low or no wages, “the price hike in the market certainly does not help.”
With even harsher words, José Pereira Coutinho accused Lei Wai Nong of treating the AL as an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) that he can resort to in order to ask for more money after spending all the budgetary allowance that was previously approved.
“Secretary Lei seems to treat the AL as an ATM where he can come to withdraw more cash after spending the budget that was previously approved and then revised. This seems to be a common method for this Secretary, who, over the past few years, has amended budgets several times due to a lack of capacity to plan a budget and also has an inability to keep the budget within reasonable limits,” Pereira Coutinho said, noting that Lei Wai Nong abuses the AL to “cover up his office planning mistakes.” He remarked that since this budget was first presented, the Secretary was, on several occasions, warned by many lawmakers and finance experts regarding the overestimation of receipts as well as underestimation of expenses. “But he does not listen, does he?” Pereira Coutinho questioned rhetorically.
The same lawmaker called on the government to create a new law aiming to suspend the payment of capital amortization on loans previously contracted by the SMEs for a period, until the situation improves, creating a dormancy period in which business owners would only be required to pay interest due, so as to prevent further bankruptcy.
As for the cash handouts, Pereira Coutinho and Ron Lam found the system unfair and excessively complex, saying that it would be “preferable and cheaper for the public purse if the government just attributed another check [annual partaking scheme cash handout] and another round of money in electronic consumption cards. [Such measures] even save money when compared with this new scheme,” he claimed.
Also calling for broader support that would include more citizens – particularly those who are currently unemployed or whose jobs have been suspended – were lawmakers Nick Lei Leong Wong, Che Sai Wang, Song Pek Kei, Wong Kit Cheng, and Zheng Anting, among others.
