The government has officially wrapped up its annual cash handout scheme for 2024, the Financial Services Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DSF) announced this morning. It saw a total of 7.3 billion patacas winging their way into people’s bank accounts.
In Macao, permanent residents are entitled to yearly payments of 10,000 patacas from the government while non-permanent residents get 6,000 patacas. This year, the so-called Wealth Partaking Scheme launched on 2 July and was “basically completed” by the end of that month, DSF said.
During that time, some 741,000 residents – some of whom live overseas – received the handouts. Seventy-eight percent got theirs via automatic bank transfers, while 22 percent requested cheques. The population of people living in Macao is only 687,000.
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The Wealth Partaking Scheme has been in place since 2008 and was initially intended to ease residents’ economic burden during the global financial crisis. It has continued as a way for the government to share in the spoils of Macao’s highly lucrative and heavily taxed casino industry.
When the programme began, permanent and non-permanent residents were entitled to 5,000 patacas and 3,000 patacas respectively. The amount has grown over the years, reaching its current level in 2019.
More information about the distribution of the funds can be found on the Wealth Partaking Scheme’s official website or the Macau One Account app. The Identification Services Bureau’s 24-hour self-service centres also allow access to the data.
