The government plans to begin issuing consumer vouchers on Jan. 18 or Jan. 19, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Chairman Chen Tian-jy (陳添枝) said yesterday.
Explaining the details of the voucher plan to the legislature’s Economics Committee, Chen said the government would also consider shortening the validity of the vouchers to six months.
Since many people oppose the proposed ban on using the vouchers at foodstands or for taxis, Chen said the council would review details and come up with the final version of the plan within a week.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said fewer than 5,000 of the 60,000 food stall operators at the 480 public markets nationwide have business licenses.
As most housewives and other consumers buy foods at traditional markets on a daily basis, it would not make much sense if vouchers could not be used at these markets, Ting said.
While many details still need to be hammered out, Chen said the decision had been made to issue paper vouchers instead of plastic debit cards. He estimated the cost of printing each voucher at NT$1.1 to NT$1.2.
“The more face values available, the costs of these molds would become prohibitive. After the number of face values are determined, then it will be important to decide what quantities of each face value are to be printed,” Chen said.
Discussions with the central bank will help determine the exact allocations, he said.
Ting then suggested embedding voucher stamps into regular currency during the printing process to cut costs by reducing the need for new molds and additional papers.
The council’s proposal to print vouchers valued at NT$100, NT$200, NT$500 and NT$1,000 was also hotly contested on the legislative floor.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) urged government officials to drop the NT$200 voucher since the NT$200 bill had proven unpopular, although other legislators were in favor of it.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced the government planned to give each citizen NT$3,600 in vouchers to help boost consumer spending and revitalize the economy. The expiration date of the vouchers would be Dec. 31 next year, the Cabinet said on Tuesday.
The council has forecast the voucher plan will boost GDP by 0.64 percent next year.
The two major assumptions underlying the council’s model are full usage of the vouchers and a conservative economic multiplier effect of 0.04 percent.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) was unconvinced the vouchers would really provide a boost to the economy.
On average, each citizen spends NT$315,200 annually, which translates to 6 percent of GDP, so the council’s NT$3,600 per citizen voucher would represent just 1 percent of their annual average spending or only 0.06 percent of GDP, Lee said, not a boost of 0.64 percent.
“The assumption of 100 percent usage of these coupons is fundamentally flawed. It is unrealistic. The Council for Economic Planning and Development did not take substitution effect into consideration, it did not consider people might simply not use their vouchers and it did not foresee people converting their vouchers on the black market and saving the cash,” Lee said.
Lee said just providing cash would be a better alternative.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The