Lawmakers yesterday criticized the rules governing civil servants’ use of Citizen’s Travel Cards, saying they created more problems without solving old ones.
The card was designed to encourage civil servants to travel within the nation during holidays, with each allotted NT$16,000 per year.
However, most government workers use the card for non-tourism-related expenses, such as buying home appliances.
The Executive Yuan last week announced that at least NT$8,000 of each card’s annual budget must be spent on domestic tours. The move was also part of the government’s attempts to boost the domestic tourism industry following a decline in the number of Chinese tourists due to a cooling of cross-strait relations.
However, the new rule was received with doubt by members of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which was reviewing the use of the Tourism Development Fund.
The new rule stipulates that civil servants can only use the card to pay for tours organized by the government agency for which they work, travel agencies designated by the agency or Taiwan Tour Bus, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
However, some of the tours offered by Taiwan Tour Bus are more expensive than those organized by private groups, which is unreasonable, he said.
While there is a need to change the rules governing how the card should be used, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should realize that people travel to relax, Lin said.
“If the ministry were to organize a tour led by Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), the ministry’s employees might see it as a form of torture, because they would have to see their boss while on vacation,” he said.
The Executive Yuan’s plan was designed to assist tourism operators most affected by the decrease in the number of Chinese tourists, Hochen said, but added that the tourism industry should be regulated by market mechanisms, instead of having the government offer a relief fund.
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