The government might issue vouchers to redistribute this year’s surplus tax revenue, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday following a call from lawmakers.
Lawmakers on the legislature’s Finance Committee asked Acting Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華) about the possibility of redistributing surplus tax revenue.
Juan said a redistribution scheme would have to undergo legislative review, so it would be easier to issue vouchers similar to the stimulus vouchers issued to encourage consumer spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: CNA
Although tax revenue exceeded the general budget planned for this year, it fell into a deficit when special budgets were taken into consideration, he added.
As such, redistributing the surplus could increase the government’s debt burden and should be carefully deliberated, he said.
Juan promised to bring the issue to the Executive Yuan and discuss it with government agencies.
Separately, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) and Michelle Lin (林楚茵) from the party’s Taiwan Forward faction proposed at a news conference ways to return the surplus tax revenue to the public.
Tax revenue in the first 11 months of this year exceeded NT$3 trillion (US$97.69 billion) for the first time, and by the end of the year might exceed the planned budget by NT$450 billion, they said.
The government should return the surplus to the public in cash or voucher form before the Lunar New Year holiday next month, they said.
It should also provide debt relief to 840,000 students in Taiwan and offer further economic relief packages to traditional industries, which were affected the most by COVID-19, they said.
Although Taiwan’s overall economic situation has ostensibly been good during the pandemic, that might only be the case for specific industries such as semiconductors and technology, Wang said.
Traditional industries, including service providers, caterers and food markets, have been struggling, he added.
Many people have complained to Vice President William Lai (賴清德) at local forums that the government’s economic relief packages came with too many limitations and inconveniences, Chao said.
The tax surplus mainly came from corporate income taxes, Lin said, adding that large companies performed well during the pandemic and their factories managed to deliver products on time.
However, the food industry, and small and medium-sized enterprises have been negatively affected by the pandemic, she said.
Former New Taipei City councilor Ho Po-wen (何博文) and former Hsinchu City councilor Lee Yen-hui (李妍慧) of the DPP urged the government to share the surplus with the public so that people can enjoy the Lunar New Year.
Later yesterday, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would convene a national security meeting to discuss the issue based on the economic conditions at home and abroad.
The Executive Yuan would make an announcement as soon as a concrete policy is formulated, he added.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS