Alcoholic beverage and fuel levies to be dropped this month

A levy on four types of alcoholic beverage as well as a variety of fuels will be expected to be abolished no later than this month, suggested Tong Chi Kin, the spokesperson of the Executive Council.

The four types of alcoholic beverage include beers and wine, liquor which contained less than 30 percent in alcohol concentration and rice wine.

The levy on beer was previously one pataca per litre, while that on wine was taxed 15 percent of the original price, with containing less than 30 percent in alcohol concentration and rice wine being levied 10 percent each.

Meanwhile fuels which are dropped from levies include unleaded petrol, leaded petrol, gas oil, fuel oil and lubricant.

The levy of one pataca per litre on unleaded petrol, 1.5 patacas per litre on leaded petrol, 0.085 patacas on gas oil and fuel oil and 0.4 patacas per litre on lubricant, will all be cancelled this month.

According to Tong the abolition of the levy will decrease government tax revenues by approximately 15.424 million patacas.

Of the 15.424 million patacas, 8.265 million patacas were on the alcoholic beverage and 7.159 million patacas on fuel.

Tong said that the abolition of the fuel levy would hopefully ease the high inflation on society.

However, he added that the levies of the above items were “not high” in Macau for a long period, and that the reduction of the levies may not have much of an affect on prices.

Tong said that the dispatch will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly for the “final detail discussion.”

It was expected to pass to the Legislative Assembly on August 15 as an “urgent approval,” according to the spokesperson.