Macau (MNA) – The Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ) told Macau News Agency (MNA) it will ‘keep close monitoring’ of the Macau Horse Racing Company Ltd. (MJC) fulfillment of its rent and tax contract obligations, with the contract to be suspended if those obligations are not met.
This Sunday local broadcaster TDM Radio reported that according to the Macau government budget reports, the company responsible for the Macau Jockey Club has not paid any rent for the property since 2009, or taxes related to betting volume for more than 10 years.
According to the latest changes made to the concession annual rent in 2005, the company was to pay MOP15 million in rent, however government financial reports seem to show the last time the group paid that full amount was in 2008, paying MOP5 million in 2009, and stopping any rent payments afterwards.
The company was also mandated contractually to pay a tax on its total betting volume that could go from 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent, with 2002 being the last year that tax was paid.
“As I understand, the horse racing company has been struggling with the revenues for a long time. Therefore, the company might negotiate with the government and seek the exempt from the duty. It does not pay the taxes if the government approve it to do so,” Professor Wang Changbin from the Gaming Teaching and Research Centre at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, told MNA.
MJC recorded losses of MOP4.07 billion for the financial year ended December 2016, having failed to make an annual profit since 2005.
On February of this year the Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac confirmed MJC’s concession licence – which would finish on February 28 – was to be extended for another 24 years and six months.
Some MOP1.5 billion are to be invested in the construction of non-gaming elements and facilities by MJC.
The Secretary stated as one of the reasons for the extension was to give an opportunity for the company to reimbursement of the taxes the company owes to the Macau SAR Government.
However the full amount of taxes owed by the company was not provided by the government, with the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) saying to MNA today that ‘due to privacy reasons’ it wouldn’t ‘disclose the information of individual companies’.
With the details of the new concession contract yet to be published at the Official Gazette, the Macau Chief Executive said before leaving for Beijing to attend the end of the 13th National People Congress that a period for the repayment of unpaid taxes would be included in the new contract.
