The government’s “wealth-sharing” handouts will be raised from 9,000 to 10,000 patacas, the Portuguese radio channel of government-owned broadcaster TDM reported yesterday.
According to the unsourced report, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On will announce the 11 percent increase in his 2019 Policy Address in the legislature this afternoon.
According to the report, the increase would be the first since 2014.
Last year, the government spent 6 billion patacas of its 109.6 billion pataca budget on the handouts, or 5.5 percent of the total, 9,000 patacas for permanent and 5,400 patacas for non-permanent residents.
Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai told reporters in Beijing on Monday that his 2019 Policy Address would mean “glad tidings” for the population, considering that the local economy had recovered in the past few years from fluctuations, resulting in repeated budget surpluses so that the public coffers were able to “share the fruits” of economic development with the citizenry.
