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‘468’ income subsidy plan on the table

The Presidential Office said yesterday the government is mapping out an income subsidy program, but added that it was not a tax cut or tax refund.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the initiative corresponded to the spirit of the “468 project” proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) during the election campaign.

The “468 project” refers to a subsidy of NT$46,800 for a family of four whose annual income is less than NT$360,000. Ma and Siew proposed to earmark NT$25 billion (US$783 million) each year for the initiative to benefit 3.2 million families.

Wang said the proposal would help the disadvantaged, offer an incentive for people to work and stimulate public consumption. Wang, however, declined to call it a tax cut or tax refund.

“It is not a tax cut. The concept is a subsidy for a working family,” he said. “If a family does not make enough to pay any taxes, there is no such thing as a tax refund.”

Asked if the government would work toward cutting taxes or offering tax rebates, Wang said the Executive Yuan was in a better position to answer the question. Wang, however, said that other countries could afford tax rebate because they had surplus tax revenues, but this was not the case in Taiwan.

Wang made the remarks in response to media inquiries about comments made by Siew on Monday. Siew told reporters during a transit stop in Singapore on his way back from Swaziland that the administration must “offer conditional tax rebates right away” to boost public consumption.

Siew told reporters that the government could grant tax refunds or tax breaks to middle and low-income families as a measure to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

Siew said he and Ma proposed the “468 project” on the campaign trail and the proposal was a form of “conditional tax rebate.” It would have the same effect as tax rebate and the executive branch should put it into practice as soon as possible.

Legislators across party lines yesterday expressed support for Siew’s remarks.

Asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) yesterday urged the Cabinet to draw up plans to execute Siew’s proposal as soon as possible as this would benefit families with lower incomes.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) told a press conference yesterday that DPP legislators supported Siew’s view, and expressed the hope that Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) would implement the proposal soon.

The DPP caucus on June 23 had issued a tax refund proposal that suggested the NT$58.3 billion government budget reserved to help local governments complete infrastructure projects and boost domestic demand be used to provide tax refunds to low-income households. The Cabinet opposed the proposal and the bill failed to clear the legislative floor before the legislature went into recess in July.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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