The pan-blue-dominated legislature passed the Act on Issuance and Management of Electronic Monetary Cards (電子票證發行管理條例) yesterday, paving the way for the integration of several of the nation’s electronic cash cards.
The Act allows companies to issue a single electronic monetary card that can be used for multiple purposes. Cardholders will be able to pay for products, services or government fees with the card.
Currently, many businesses like 7-Eleven stores or Taipei EasyCard Corp have their own electronic monetary cards, but they are usually intended for a single purpose such as payment for MRT or bus tickets.
The bill put a NT$10,000 ceiling on the value that can be stored on a card, adding that businesses that issue electronic cash cards can either issue disposable or reusable cards.
The Act authorizes the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to approve or reject applications to issue cards.
Under the Act, only limited liability companies with a minimum capital of NT$300 million (US$9 million) will be allowed to apply.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposed raising the capital threshold to NT$1 billion, but the 93 legislators present rejected the proposal 69 to 24.
With approval from the FSC, companies can also issue electronic cash cards that can be used abroad or cooperate with foreign firms to issue electronic cards in Taiwan, the bill said.
The companies qualified to issue electronic monetary cards would be liable for keeping customers’ personal information confidential and are banned from providing the information to others for marketing purposes.
The FSC would be allowed to inspect the operations and financial condition of the companies at any time, the Act said.
Those found guilty of counterfeiting electronic cash cards would face a jail term of between one year and 10 years and a fine of between NT$10 million and NT$200 million.
Those found to have made a profit of more than NT$100 million through the offense would be sentenced to a minimum of seven years in prison and fined between NT$25 million and NT$500 million.
Following passage of the bill, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said the act would help the nation’s monetary system catch up with global trends.
Ting said allowing electronic cards to be used for multiple purposes would make it more convenient for people to conduct transactions.
However, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) expressed concern that the nation’s financial system would end up controlled by the small number of companies allowed to issue the cards.
“The bill was passed hastily, without sufficient discussion among legislators,” Yeh said.
Taipei EasyCard Corp said yesterday that the company would expand the use of the EasyCard as a result of the Act’s passage and that card holders would be able to use the cards at major convenience stores, fast food chains, coffee shops, gas stations and bakeries as early as June.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday lauded the passage of the Act at a joint press conference.
“The company expects the EasyCard to function as an electronic wallet, with people being able to pay for newspapers, coffee and other things using their card,” Lien said at Taipei City Hall.
Hau dismissed allegations that the Act was passed to profit the company and further Lien’s career.
“It is not the ‘Sean Lien Act,’” he said. “Expanding the use of EasyCard was a campaign promise and municipal policy.”
Lien said that the Act was introduced two years ago and was not proposed for his own benefit.
Meanwhile, legislators also voted in favor of an amendment to the Aviation Act (民用航空法) that would grant outlying island residents airfare discounts between 20 percent and 40 percent.
They also approved a five-year tax break for new businesses in the manufacturing industry and related service industries.
Sixty-nine out of the 97 legislators present supported an amendment to the Act for Upgrading Industries (促進產業升級條例) that would grant business tax exemptions for the expansion of new businesses or companies in the industries between July 1 last year and the end of this year.
DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) criticized the amendment, saying that the measure would only benefit big corporations while being unfair to small and mid-sized businesses.
Meanwhile, the legislature passed the Cabinet-proposed Special Act on Boosting the Economy by Increasing Investment in Public Works (振興經濟擴大公共建設特別條例), allowing the central government to request a maximum of NT$500 billion in special budget funds by taking out loans to increase investment in public construction projects.
The Act requires the government to “reasonably allocate the budget [to local governments] in a bid to bridge the gap between northern and southern parts of the nation.”
Lawmakers also passed a resolution obliging the government to implement a “schooling stability project” this year by fully subsidizing school lunches and textbooks for junior high and elementary school students and tuition for vocational high school students.
The resolution also obliged the government to give interest-free loans to university and high school students and grant them a three-year grace period to pay off the debt.
Under the current regulation, students taking the loans are required to begin paying off the debt in installments one year after graduation.
Also yesterday, the legislature agreed to halve the term of legislative committee heads from one year to six months.
In related news, no progress was made regarding the central government’s budget request for this fiscal year as legislators still needed to vote on some 100 motions initiated by lawmakers across party lines on the budget proposal as of press time.
The legislature was supposed to go into recess after passing the budget proposal yesterday.
The central government is seeking NT$1.7 trillion in revenue and NT$1.82 trillion in expenditure for this fiscal year.
The legislature’s Finance Committee previously passed the preliminary review of the request, cutting the annual revenue request by NT$124 million and cutting the expenditure request by NT$3.96 billion.
The DPP and the KMT have since submitted tit-for-tat proposals relating to the budget.
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