The Executive Yuan yesterday advanced a bill that would allow the government to allocate up to NT$56 billion (US$1.88 billion) for recovery work in southern Taiwan following Typhoon Danas and flooding over the past few weeks.
The special spending plan would support areas affected by recent inclement weather in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Taitung, Changhua, Yunlin and Nantou counties, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said.
Cho on Wednesday met with Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in the hopes of gaining the legislature’s approval so that people could rebuild their homes as soon as possible, the Cabinet said.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
Han has promised to prioritize the bill on the legislature’s agenda, Cho said, adding that the Cabinet would propose a separate appropriations bill once the act passes its third reading.
The disaster relief budget under the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法) is not sufficient, as the situation is getting worse, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference, quoting Cho.
The special budget would be planned in phases, with the source of funding from budget surplus or borrowing, the Cabinet said.
There would be nine recovery and reconstruction projects: agricultural facilities; electricity systems; telecommunications and cable TV systems; water and gas systems; public facilities; irrigation; roads and traffic; environmental hygiene; and social recovery and industry promotion, it said.
The proposed funds would also support private-sector recovery — including agriculture, fisheries, tourism and cultural industries — as well as subsidies, compensation and other relief measures for households that suffered financial losses.
The bill would be in effect until the end of 2027 and could be extended with the approval of the legislature, it said.
Recent inclement weather has claimed two lives and injured more than 700 people, with thousands of others forced to evacuate.
More than 1 million households had power outages, while 70,000 were cut off from water mains, government data showed.
People working in agriculture and fisheries — the main economic activities in southern Taiwan — sustained an estimated NT$3.28 billion in losses, the data showed.
It is the second special bill, which are usually funded through surplus tax revenues and borrowing, that the government has proposed this year.
An earlier act, which earmarked NT$530 billion to bolster Taiwan’s security infrastructure, and provide relief to businesses and individuals likely to be affected by US tariffs, as well as to offset their broader economic effect, was passed by the legislature last month and promulgated by President William Lai (賴清德) on Friday last week.
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