The legislature may approve a Cabinet proposal to distribute consumer vouchers by Friday of next week at the earliest, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday.
“If everything goes smoothly and the bill wins the support of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] caucus, we would pass the special legislation by Nov. 28 at the earliest,” KMT caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said at a press conference.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced on Tuesday the government’s plan to issue consumer vouchers valued at NT$3,600 to every citizen. By taking out loans equaling NT$82.9 billion (US$2.5 billion), the government is hoping to boost the nation’s economic growth next year by 0.64 percent.
Under the plan, by Lunar New Year on Jan. 24, Taiwanese nationals can claim the vouchers at their household registration offices by showing documents proving citizenship.
The expiration date of the vouchers will be Dec. 31 next year, while the face value of each voucher note has yet to be determined.
The vouchers can be used at any store with an official business registration, meaning vendors at night markets or traditional markets will not be able to accept the vouchers.
Liu said that the program does not exclude the wealthy because it is designed to “stimulate consumption to get the economy going” and “not to provide social assistance.”
In a bid to legitimize the policy, the Cabinet has to write a special piece of legislation for the program before requesting a special budget, as borrowing the funds conflicts with Article 23 of the Budget Law (預算法), which states that funds raised by loans must be used in capital investments, and Article 4 of the Public Debt Act (公共債務法), which places a debt ceiling on loans.
The bill will then have to be submitted to the legislature’s Procedure Committee before it can be put to preliminary review or to second and third reading.
The bill can skip a preliminary review if the legislature’s plenary session agrees.
Chang said the premier would be invited to report the details of the policy to the legislature after the special legislation is approved, while legislative committees would hold joint meetings to review the special budget requests intended for the vouchers.
If everything goes well, the legislature may approve the requests by as early as Dec. 12, Chang said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) urged the Cabinet to address only the voucher policy in its special budget requests and to keep the focus of the requests simple.
Wang’s remarks came in response to the premier’s plan to also take out loans to increase investment in public works and to boost industries.
Wang urged both the KMT and the DPP to deal with the Cabinet’s special legislation and budget requests rationally.
In response, DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference that the government would spend between NT$8 billion and NT$10 billion printing the vouchers and sending them to recipients by mail.
If the government offered cash rather than vouchers, each person could receive NT$4,000 instead of just NT$3,600.
Lai said the government was trying to implement the DPP’s cash subsidy proposal, but to save face it was issuing vouchers rather than cash.
DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said that offering cash would reduce the cost of the program, boost monetary circulation and benefit vendors excluded by the voucher plan.
Also See: Lawmakers question voucher program
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS