The Cabinet yesterday announced it would limit monetary transfers made through automatic teller machines (ATM) to NT$30,000 a day after the government came under fire for the Ministry of the Interior's (MOI) announcement that the limit would be set at NT$10,000 a day.
Speaking on behalf of Premier Frank Hsieh (
Starting from June 1, money transfers will be limited to NT$30,000 a day, the statement said. However, transfers for utility payments, tax payments and for specially designated payments or bank accounts will not be restricted.
The MOI the FSC and the Cabinet began receiving a deluge of complaints about the previously proposed restriction of NT$10,000, which had been scheduled to take effect on April 20 due to an increasing number of ATM fraud cases.
"We support our fellow Cabinet members' efforts to stop the fraud cases. However, we must also pay attention to the voice of the people," Cho said.
"The premier said that the previous announcement by the MOI and the FSC was not well organized before it was made public, and that Cabinet members should be more careful in the future."
Cho said that Hsieh held a meeting with related Cabinet members and decided to re-consider the limitation yesterday afternoon.
"Statistics show that most of the ATM money transfers -- about 84.53 percent of them -- are under NT$30,000. As a result, we decided to put the new limitation at NT$30,000 so it will not bother too many people," Cho said.
In the meantime, Cho also encouraged the public to sign up for automated bill payments.
"If everybody signs up for automatic payments, all our monthly bills will be taken care of automatically, and it will save us a lot of difficulty as well," he said.
In the meantime, Kong said that making life more convenient for people will always be a priority for the government, so he would also ask local banks to mail related documents to their clients so they will be able to sign up for automatic payments.
"Long lines are expected at local banks once the new limitation takes effect," Kong said. "To save more time for everybody, we will ask banks to do the registration by mail."
Su said it was definitely necessary to impose the new limitation on ATM money transfers because the police had received reports of approximately 110 fraud cases, totalling NT$300 million, per day involving transfers.
"Police investigations show that most of the suspects of ATM fraud cases committed crimes in China. Unfortunately, we can do nothing about this at the moment, since we do not have jurisdiction in China," Su said.
"For our part, we will keep working on a plan to work with Chinese law enforcement officers so we will be able to arrest these people and bring them back for trial in the future."
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS