Macau annual cash handout the best yet this year

Macau beneficiaries of the $1,245 Wealth Partaking Scheme implemented by the island government in 2008 will this year receive their best yet annual payment – 10,000 patacas (US$1,245) for permanent residents and 6,000 patacas for non-permanent residents.

The Macau government announced Thursday that the escalated cash hand out is possible thanks to a budget surplus of 40.4 billion patacas (about $5.2 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31.

The Wealth Partaking Scheme was introduced in the middle of difficult financial and economic times for Macau and is designed to “share the fruits of economic development with the general public” in a place that has become ever wealthier thanks to its land casinos – but also more unequal.

In terms of per capita GDP, at $122,500, Macau trails energy-rich Qatar, according to the IMF.

In the last fiscal year some 700,000 people in Macau received a total of 6 billion patacas ($770 million), a process that only finished up in September, with elderly people paid first.

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