The government of Macao expects to spend 562.5 million patacas between now and March 2024 to subsidise electricity supplied to eligible families.
Portugal’s Lusa news agency reports that the expenditure, calculated from official data released on Wednesday by the Financial Services Bureau, is the highest since the subsidy programme was launched in 2008.
According to the bureau, 234,392 householders are covered by the program – more than 30.5 percent more than at its launch.
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The scheme grants each family a monthly subsidy of a maximum value of 200 patacas, deducted from electricity bills.
Meanwhile, other figures show that Macao was only able to keep public accounts in the black in the first five months of the year because of transfers totalling 7.2 billion patacas from its financial reserves.
This was despite current revenue rising 56.8 percent in annual terms in the first five months of 2023, to 26.2 billion patacas, Lusa says.
