The government yesterday announced mortgage and student loan subsidies to help ease financial challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Executive Yuan approved a Ministry of the Interior proposal to provide one-off mortgage subsidies of NT$30,000 (US$991) to eligible home buyers, Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said.
Home buyers with an annual household income of less than NT$1.2 million who are liable for an original mortgage of up to NT$8.5 million in Taipei, or up to NT$7 million in the rest of the country, can apply for the subsidy, Chen Tseng-yen told reporters following a weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁).
Photo: CNA
Applications are to open on Feb. 28, the ministry said, adding that about 550,000 households are expected to benefit.
Owners of multiple homes would be excluded, it added.
Housing justice is high on the premier’s agenda, Chen Tsung-yen said, adding that the measure is part of a government effort to help offset fallout from the pandemic on low-income and middle-class households over the past three years, during which interest rates were raised four times.
The subsidy is not meant to encourage people to buy homes or to subsidize luxury homeowners, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said, adding that landlords would not receive the subsidy.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal seeking to grant rent subsidies for economically disadvantaged people, including students aged 18 or older, as part of an annual NT$30 billion program implemented last year.
The number of eligible applicants has increased from 60,000 to 277,000, Lin said.
About 40 percent of subsidy recipients are underprivileged households, while young adults and newly married couples account for 30 percent, Lin added.
Meanwhile, students and recent graduates in need of financial assistance would have one year of student loans forgiven, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
The plan is expected to help 546,000 low-income students, recent graduates raising children and recent graduates earning less than NT$40,000 per month on average, Pan said, adding that it would be implemented in July.
About NT$380 billion in financial surplus and special budget funds are to go toward forgiving the loans, including principal and interest, he said.
No application would be necessary, with the forgiven amount deducted directly through issuing banks, Pan added.
The Ministry of Culture also announced NT$1,200 vouchers for young people who have missed out on “coming-of-age” traditions during the pandemic.
Originally intended only for 18-year-olds, the ministry has decided to issue the vouchers to Taiwanese aged 18 to 21, it said, adding that about 900,000 people would benefit.
Teenagers have not been able to hold graduation ceremonies or go on class trips over the three years of the pandemic, the culture ministry said.
The vouchers can be used for visiting exhibitions, performances or screenings of locally made movies, or to buy books, crafts or art, it said.
The plan is one of five programs proposed by the culture ministry to help young adults and revitalize Taiwan’s cultural industries, it said in a news release yesterday.
It also plans to support small bookstores, shops and cultural spaces; promote art classes and cultural experiences on and off campus; bring traditional performance troupes to rural areas; and expand art-related content to enhance cultural self-confidence, it said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS