Macau Debating Over a Bill to Render Digital Currency

• Macau’s Executive Council proposed a bill that would have the intention to accept CBDC as a legal Tender.
• The government has not set a date or defined which digital currencies will accept.

The Chinese special administrative region of Macau, which has a thriving gambling industry. It has declared its intention to accept CBDC as legal tender. And generated a bill to make the digital money legal tender. The Macau government has not yet stipulated a schedule for when or which digital currencies will accepts. It has only added the term digital currency to the definition of legal tender.

Enhancing Macau’s Government System

The bill also stated that the issuance of new forms of digital currency as well as the establishment, circulation, type, and other characteristics of the currencies would fall under the remit of administrative regulation.

In addition to that, the merchants and transportation should accept the digital currency as Legal tender. If those who refuse to accept it will punished with a penalty between 1,000 to 1,000,000 Macanese pataca (MOP). Which translates to $123.7 and $1,237, respectively.

Finally, the Executive Council stated that the bill would require Macau currency issuers to modify their reclaim procedures to continue collecting and changing reclaimed currencies. The bill aims to modernize the region’s 27-year-old regulatory system and to align the region’s economic and legal agendas with those of Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The secretary for economics and finance, Lei Wai Nong, stated in June that

“To strengthen the CBDC system relying on national technical strength, Macau is looking to China’s experience in creating the digital yuan to perhaps create its own CBDC.”