The government plans to give each Taiwanese a one-off cash payment of NT$6,000 (US$195.35) as a rebate from what has been described as surplus tax revenue, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
The government would keep NT$40 billion of the NT$180 billion in surplus tax revenue in reserve and share the rest with the public, Su told reporters in Chiayi County.
With the aim of “sharing the nation’s economic achievements with all citizens, young and old,” each Taiwanese would be given NT$6,000, Su said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
It remains unclear whether foreign nationals residing in Taiwan who have paid taxes to the government would be included in the rebate plan.
Asked about the matter, the Cabinet did not provide any details, saying only that “planning is ongoing.”
Su said that the government aims issue the cash payment shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday from Jan. 20 to 29.
The Cabinet would have to send the plan to the legislature for approval.
Given repeated calls by legislators across party lines for the surplus tax revenue to be returned to the public, the legislature is likely to make a decision soon after the Cabinet submits its proposal.
However, lawmakers are split on when they should review such a plan. The legislature’s regular session has been extended to Friday next week to give lawmakers more time to review the central government’s proposed general budget for this year.
While Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have said that a provisional session should be held from Jan. 16 to 20 to discuss the matter, Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it was better to do so in the next session, which is to begin before the end of next month.
Su’s announcement followed a policy reversal by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who, despite earlier ruling out any imminent plans to give the surplus back to the public, on Tuesday promised a rebate plan.
The Ministry of Finance estimated that last year’s tax revenue could exceed the amount budgeted by NT$450 billion after the central government collected more than NT$3 trillion in tax revenue in the first 11 months of last year.
The government would spend most of the NT$450 billion on initiatives, such as closing financing gaps in the Labor Insurance and National Health Insurance funds, and subsidizing electricity prices, the Presidential Office said in a statement after a meeting on Saturday.
The government would also distribute NT$70 billion of the total to local governments, while leaving a reserve of NT$180 billion that would be “shared with the people,” the statement said.
Also yesterday, Su said that the Cabinet has extended the monthly living allowance of NT$750 and NT$500 for individuals in low and middle-to-low income households until the end of this year.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare would coordinate with local authorities to ensure eligible recipients receive this month’s allowance before the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
As part of the government’s COVID-19 relief measures, the monthly payments were given on top of other allowances.
The program, which was originally scheduled to run until last month, benefits about 620,000 households, the ministry said in March last year, when it was launched.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS