The Macau government today presented a project for the opening of a low-interest loan scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that face “great difficulties” posed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
“SMEs are facing great difficulties” because of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the spokesman for the Executive Council of the Macau SAR said at a press conference.
For this reason, the Executive has activated a total of MOP10 billion (US$1.2 billion), with “the maximum limit on the amount of credit authorized to grant interest subsidies to each small and medium-sized company being MOP2 million ”.
“The project foresees that qualified Macao SMEs, when they have obtained financing granted within the period set by the bank to respond to infection with a new coronavirus type, may apply to the Industrial and Commercial Development Fund (FDIC) for an interest subsidy,” he explained.
“The maximum bonus period is three years and the maximum annual bonus rate is 4 per cent”, said André Cheong.
The project, which comes into force next week, has an application deadline of six months, added the official.
Authorizations for granting this credit must be issued between “February 1, 2020 and the application deadline”.
In mid-February, at a time when the casinos were closed to combat the spread of the virus in the territory, the Secretary for Economy and Finance had already announced exceptional measures that include exemption or reduction of taxes, reinforcement of social support, in the development of workers’ professional skills, as well as the launch of electronic consumption vouchers.
The Government has decided to exempt residents from the payment of the urban property tax for housing units for the year 2019.
The population of Macau will also be exempt from paying electricity and water tariffs between March and May.
As for companies, with regard to the Complementary Income Tax, the collection for the year 2019 will suffer a maximum deduction of MOP300,000. The urban building tax for commercial and industrial properties for the year 2019 will have a 25 per cent deduction.
The authorities also advanced the exemption for six months from the tourism tax, which corresponds to a rate of 5 per cent of consumption made in establishments in the tourist services sector.
The Government will also proceed with the return of the circulation tax of commercial vehicles for the year 2020, as well as for the exemption or return of the value of the stamp tax for licenses and administrative licenses referring to this year.
The Government of Macau has also already announced the anticipation for April of the financial contribution of MOP10,000 and MOP6,000 for permanent and non-permanent residents, respectively.
On a social level, for the most deprived, there is a new allocation of health vouchers worth MOP600 and the allocation of two extra subsidies to households that already benefited from economic support.
The Macau authorities have also decided to exempt tenants of the leased government properties from payment for three months.
Other measures exempt commercial spaces from the payment of licensing and administrative fees, as well as from inspection of facilities.
The exceptional measures also include a one-year extension of the repayment term for interest-free loans from the creative and cultural industries granted by the Cultural Industries Fund.
With tourist visas from Mainland China to Macau suspended, companies in the territory that live mainly from Chinese tourism suffered a sharp drop in their revenues, with the Government estimating a deficit of MOP40 billion this year.
There are no new cases of infection for 37 days, Macau registered 10 cases, all of whom have been discharged
