MACAO -- Direct taxes from gaming businesses generated 84.4 percent of total revenue of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government in the first five months of this year, the Macao Post Daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted latest statistics from the city's Finance Service Bureau (DSF) as saying that the SAR government's income from gaming taxes rose 46.2 percent year-on-year to 35.17 billion patacas ($4.39 billion) between January and May.

Local casinos' direct tax rate stands at 35 percent of their gross receipts.

The official figures also indicated that total revenue of the SAR government in the first five months amounted to 41.65 billion patacas ($5.2 billion), up 46.4 percent year-on-year. Its total expenditure stood at 12.19 billion patacas ($1.52 billion), a year-on-year increase of 69.9 percent.

The government's overall surplus grew 38.4 percent year-on-year to 29.46 billion patacas ($3.68 billion), according to the figures.