Gov’t investment in Provident Fund depending on surplus

The government investment share on the individual accounts from the Central Provident Fund can only resume after the government accounts are back to register surplus, Chief Executive (CE) Ho Iat Seng explained yesterday during a Q&A session with the media on the Policy Address for 2022 (LAG22).
Questioned on the topic, Ho explained that such injection of government funds (usually 7,000 patacas) in the individual accounts of all permanent residents is conditioned by the fact that the government accounts register a surplus that can account for such transference of funds.
“We cannot continue to transfer these amounts in time while we are reporting a deficit and we are making [special] use of the financial reserves to face the economic challenges,” Ho added, promising that such government contribution for residents’ welfare will resume as soon as accounts register a surplus.
The last time that the government has made such transference of funds was back in 2019.
When met with the CE ahead of the LAG22, the lawmaker and president of the Macau Civil Servants Association, José Pereira Coutinho, said that one of the requests made by the association to the CE was the transference of such funds, in the equivalent of 21,000 patacas (referring to 2020, 2021 and 2022) to all residents and especially to the elderly and retired.