Briefs | Mainland waives taxes for 27 products

Under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), 27 products will be charged zero taxes when exported to the mainland from Macau, as revealed by the Gongbei Customs District yesterday, according to a report by TDM. The list of products includes seasonings, wine and diamonds, with a few of the items originally manufactured in Macau. The tax-free policy will come into effect on June 1. According to Deng Weiguang, head of the Origin Management Office of Gongbei Customs, many of these 27 products are related to Portuguese-speaking Countries. The new policy is expected to attract companies from the Portuguese-speaking countries to invest in Macau.

36 poultry sellers accepted IACM support

Thirty-six local live poultry sellers, equal to 60 percent of those in Macau, have accepted the Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau’s (IACM) financial support proposal. According to a report by Macao Daily News, some of them have been moving their equipment away from their vendor spots. One of the sellers claimed that most of his peers can only get between MOP200,000 and MOP300,000 for their equipment. Chow Wah Shing, vice-president of the Macau Live Poultry Vendors Association, considers the handling of Macau’s poultry sales by IACM as unreasonable. He has already delivered a letter to the related government department asking for another discussion between the government and the poultry sellers.

58 arrested for cross-region illegal football betting

The Macau and Zhongshan police authorities arrested a total of 58 people who had organized an illegal online football betting scheme involving people from both mainland China and Macau, as announced by the Zhongshan Public Security Bureau on Wednesday. One of the leaders of the criminal group is a Macau resident. The group started establishing online casinos back in 2010. Gambling options mainly consisted of football betting and lotteries. Until the end of last April, the group’s online betting system had accumulated approximately RMB200 million in bets. From its operations, the group obtained RMB800,000 in profits. Six suspects were arrested in Macau. In total, the Zhongshan public security bureau deployed more than 400 police officers to locate the suspects.