The Ministry of the Interior yesterday proposed increasing the tax deduction for each child under the age of 18 from NT$74,000 to NT$111,000.
To review the proposal, Vice Minister Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) hosted a meeting yesterday that was attended by officials and representatives from the Council for Economic Planning and Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Council of Labor Affairs, the ministry's Children's Bureau and some local women groups.
At the meeting, the finance ministry's representatives strongly disagreed with the idea of increasing the amount of the tax deduction, but the majority of attendees still decided to submit the proposal to the Cabinet.
"Since encouraging couples to have babies is the ministry's current priority, I think the tax deduction proposal for each child will be a plus for married couples who want to have more chil-dren," Chien said.
"I think it is the most effective way to encourage people to have more children, which we do need at this moment," he said.
Chien said the ministry's policy is to encourage couples to have more children since Tai-wan's birth rate dropped to a record low this year.
The ministry is considering a slew of ideas ranging from offering couples who already have two children a special subsidy for each additional baby they have and other tax incentives to organizing seminars on taking care of newborns.
Such proposals would first have to be approved by the Cabinet and then the legislature.
The ministry has come up with a new slogan it wants to use for its campaign to increase the birth rate: "Two is just right, three is not too many" (兩個恰恰好, 三個不嫌多).
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