Briefs | Foreign exchange reserves increase slightly

The Monetary Authority of Macau announced yesterday that the preliminary estimate the MSAR’s foreign exchange reserves totaled MOP139.1 billion (USD17.42 billion) at the end of May 2015. The reserves increased by 1.3 percent from the revised value of MOP137.3 billion (USD17.20 billion) for the previous month. Macau’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of May 2015 represented 12 times the currency in circulation. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca, a gauge of the domestic currency’s exchange rates against the currencies of Macau’s major trading partners, fell by 1.09 points month-to-month but rose by 6.51 points year-on-year to 103.77 in May 2015.

New rules shrink local taxpayer number

The city’s total number of profit tax payers will drop significantly from roughly 45,000 to 1,911 with the introduction of a tax threshold of MOP600,000, the Financial Services Bureau found. According to the figures in the fiscal year of 2013 supplied by the bureau, there are a total of 56,820 people in the city who required to pay the official profit tax, 4,193 of whom are categorized as ‘group A’ while ‘group B’ consists of 52,627 taxpayers. The former group will see a 41 percent reduction, whereas the latter will see a 98 percent fall after the exemption threshold is lifted to MOP600,000 this fiscal year. Benefiting from the new policy will be mainly taxpayers from group B, as most local small-and-mid-sized enterprises belong to that category. In order to alleviate the financial burden on local enterprises, the chief executive promised in March during the Policy Address to relax the tax threshold, which has been going up since 2007. In 2013, the value of the profit tax exemption stood at MOP300,000.

GDI operation extended for two more years

The Infrastructure Development Office (GDI) will run for two more years as the Chief Executive Chui Sai On granted a term extension to the public department yesterday, whose duration was expected to end at the end of this month. Founded in May in 2000, the office mainly deals with domestic infrastructural projects and their development, as well as regional collaboration on large-scale architecture. The key Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project is also under GDI supervision. Assistant coordinator Chau Vai Man is currently in charge of the office after the resignation of coordinator Chan Hon Kit in February due to health reasons.