Stimulus coupons for Taiwanese and foreign spouses with residency permits can be ordered starting on July 1 and can be used from July 15 to Dec. 31, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
Aimed at boosting domestic spending, the coupons worth NT$3,000 (US$100.04) are to cost NT$1,000.
“For our consumers, this is a very good deal as they get three times as much value for their money,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
While the coupons are to have a wide range of uses, including at department stores, restaurants, book stores, night markets, beauty and hair salons, hotels, and to purchase travel and concert tickets, they cannot be used to pay for online purchases, taxes, fines, cigarettes, stock bonds, insurance, credit card loans, pensions, gift cards or to store value.
“Each of the more than 23 million Taiwanese is eligible for a coupon; so are the 150,000 foreign and Chinese spouses with residency permits in Taiwan,” Su said, adding that to benefit the most people, the government has not set an age limit.
The coupons are to come in paper and digital form, with the latter comprising mobile payments, electronic tickets and credit cards.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“Similar to the system for mask purchases, people can purchase the coupons at post offices upon presenting their National Health Insurance cards, starting on July 15,” Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) said.
At NT$1,000 per unit, the coupons are to contain four coupons worth NT$500 each and five coupons worth NT$200 each.
Coupons ordered before the start date can be claimed after July 15 at the nation’s four convenience store chains: 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, OK Mart and Hi-Life, Tang said.
Consumers can also choose a digital payment option, Tang said.
“From July 1, people can choose to [link their coupon order to] either their credit card, a mobile payment service or electronic ticket, which would then record all purchases made … from July 15 onward,” Tang said.
“Once people have reached the NT$3,000 threshold … they will be notified and receive NT$2,000 in return,” she said, adding that the sum could either be transferred directly into people’s bank accounts or be deducted from their credit card bills.
A program to allow people to claim the NT$2,000 from an ATM is in development, the minister added.
For businesses and shops that would accept the coupons, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said that those equipped with government Uniform Invoice numbers could cash in the coupons at post offices and banks nationwide.
“Businesses without invoice numbers will be assisted by shopping districts, night market management committees and councils, which will cash in the coupons for them,” Shen added.
In total, the coupons are expected to generate up to NT$111.2 billion in value, the minister said.
“Local consumption is expected to reach NT$70 billion with the coupons alone, but mobile payment operators are also proposing 20 percent reductions, which would be even further amplified as businesses launch buy-one, get-one-free programs,” he said.
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