2011-02-21 13:37

MACAO -- Macao's gaming tax revenue leaped 62.3 percent in January over last year, according to the data released by the Finance Services Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The data showed the gaming taxes accounted for 85.9 percent of Macao SAR's total receipts in January.

The total revenue of the city in January rose 61.3 percent to 8.06 billion patacas ($1 billion), while its total expenditure jumped 225.3 percent to 1.71 billion patacas (US$213 million).

The huge increase in expenditure was mostly due to higher transfer payments to the government's autonomous entities and the payment of so-called wealth-share handouts to residents last year.

The government's overall surplus-excluding autonomous entities rose 42 percent to 6.35 billion patacas ($793 million).

According to Macao SAR's law, casinos should pay 35 percent of their gross revenues as direct tax to the government.