GGRAsia – Macau govt casino tax revenue falls 35 pct in year to Nov

Macau govt casino tax revenue falls 35 pct in year to Nov

Dec 29, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The Macau government’s total revenue fell 29.9 percent year-on-year for the 11 months to November 30, while total expenditure rose 17.3 percent in the same period.

Direct taxes from gaming accounted for MOP78.54 billion (US$9.8 billion) during the period – or nearly 77 percent of Macau government revenue in the 11 months to November 30. But they were down by 34.7 percent in year-on-year terms.

During the above calendar period, the government surplus – the amount by which revenue exceeded spending – fell 56.9 percent year-on-year.

The data were listed in the latest publicly available edition of the central account ledger, published on Monday by Macau’s Financial Services Bureau.

Macau’s accumulated casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first 11 months of the year fell 35.3 percent compared to the same period in 2014, according to data released by the city’s gaming regulator on December 1.

Fitch Ratings Inc, a credit rating service, had said in a note on Macau’s economic outlook, issued in September, that not only did the territory have no debt liabilities, but also retained fiscal reserves and accumulated surpluses “in excess of 100 percent of gross domestic product – enough to almost cover six years of expenditures at the 2015 level projected by government”.

Macau’s GDP shrank by 24.2 percent year-on-year in real terms for the three months to September 30 – the fifth consecutive quarter of such contraction – as the city’s casino GGR continued to slide, said Macau’s Statistics and Census Service on November 30.

The government’s accumulated revenue in the first 11 months of 2015 was approximately MOP102.17 billion, while total expenditure amounted to nearly MOP62.20 billion according to the figures released on Monday. Current expenditure accounted for just over MOP57.91 billion, or 93 percent, of all expenditure in the period. The execution rate for all expenditure was 70.7 percent.

Capital expenditure included nearly MOP3.47 billion on Macau’s public investment plan, known by its Portuguese acronym PIDDA. But the execution rate on the latter was only 23.6 percent.