The legislature yesterday passed a special bill to allocate NT$380 billion (US$12.49 billion) from last year’s surplus tax revenue to help Taiwan recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes a provision to issue NT$6,000 cash handouts to all Taiwanese and tax-paying permanent residents.
In addition to the handouts, the surplus would be used to replenish the National Health Insurance fund and the Labor Insurance Fund, and subsidize the operations of state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電), according to the “special act for strengthening economic and social resilience after the pandemic and sharing economic results with the public.”
The funds could also be used to subsidize housing policies, public transportation costs, social welfare policies covering disadvantaged groups, and policies to help upgrade small and medium-sized enterprises, the bill says.
Photo: CNA
They could also be used to to attract international tourists, improve agricultural infrastructure and the rights and interests of fishers, and subsidize student loans, and cultural sectors and activities, it says.
The bill includes a sunset clause that sets the end date for the act and a matching special budget as Dec. 31, 2025.
The Cabinet must now submit a special budget request to the legislature for review before the surplus can be appropriated.
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
A motion tendered by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to issue NT$10,000 cash handouts instead of NT$6,000 was rejected by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers during the all-member hearing.
A motion sponsored by the DPP stating that all Taiwanese born before the act’s expiration date would receive the cash handout was passed as an addendum.
KMT caucus convener William Tseng (曾銘宗) expressed regret at the KMT’s motion being rejected.
The government has enough resources to fund NT$10,000 handouts, as last year’s tax surplus totaled NT$490 billion, and the surplus from 2021 can be added to the share allocated for cash handouts, Tseng said.
The Cabinet should propose plans to use the surplus to boost support for disadvantaged people, especially as real wages have been falling, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during her New Year’s address on Jan. 1 said that a portion of last year’s tax surplus would be reserved in case of an emergency.
New Power Party Chairwoman and deputy caucus convenor Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) expressed concern that the planning of special budgets could become normalized, which she said would result in breaches of fiscal discipline.
The Ministry of Finance should be more precise in estimating its tax revenue to avoid overtaxing people rather than engaging in pork-barrel spending, she said.
Taiwan People’s Party caucus convener Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) said that the DPP should not have used a special budget to fund what should have been general budgetary items.
This has given rise to half-baked policies resulting from a desire to engage in pork-barrel spending ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections, Chiu said.
Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the Cabinet would deliberate the special budget proposal tomorrow and deliver it to the legislature.
DPP caucus director-general Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that people would start receiving the handouts in April at the earliest.
The four legislative caucuses have agreed to ask Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to report to the legislature on Friday next week, after which the budget request would enter committee review, Cheng said.
The request would likely be deliberated by the caucuses for about a month, given a lack of consensus on how to spend the surplus, before it is reviewed during an all-member hearing on April 10, he said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS