Gov’t estimates GGR to stand at MOP130b in 2021

The SAR government estimates that the city’s gross gaming revenue will be around MOP130 billion next year, TDM Radio Macau reported.
According to the report, the government has predicted that the situation of the SAR’s economy next year would remain “critical.”
The 2021 budget bill also forecasts the government’s direct gaming tax income to amount to MOP 45.5 billion, about half the amount originally budgeted for this year.
This year, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought great impact on the city’s economic performance, because it has mostly been relying on the export of service, or gambling. The gambling and other related industries took up half of the city’s economic output in 2018, which is the latest official data available. The data for 2019, in addition, will only be available from November 20.
Furthermore, the figures released by the city’s Statistics and Census Service showed that in September this year, only below 450,000 visitor arrivals were recorded, 84% lower than the same period in 2019.
Set against this background, many businesses within the tertiary industry category saw near-zero business activities.
As such, the government remains conservative about the city’s economic activities in the coming year. It expects the city will still be affected by the Covid-19 disease and should remain vigilant.
Meanwhile, based on the fact that it does not expect large incomes, the government has decided to take MOP26.5 from its reserve, making a total estimated income of MOP96.6 billion. The total expenditure of the government will be about MOP95.2 billion.
The need for that is because the government expects to continue waiving or decreasing a number of taxes, while expanding public investment and development, such as infrastructures, although cutting government spending and halting new intake of civil servants.
On that topic, Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong, mentioned that the civil servants’ team has reached its quota of 38,000 people. Cheong did not expect the team to grow further. New intake will only be done when necessary; for example, when a current civil servant retires.
Furthermore, after years of pay raise in a row, the civil servants’ team will not see their salary denomination increased next year. Currently, the salary denomination is worth MOP92.
This is the first government budget in 10 years that does not have an income of more than MOP100 billion. AL