Some items in the Cabinet’s NT$60 billion (US$1.99 billion) special budget to bail out sectors affected by COVID-19 are unnecessary, while others need to be better planned, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said yesterday.
Some of the money could be put to better use, such as improving disease prevention measures at markets and stores, she said at the Legislative Yuan during a question-and-answer session with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Cabinet officials.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics has said that the special budget would be tapped to cover pressing disease-prevention work or subsidize sectors in urgent need of help, but some items appear to overlap with existing policies, while other do not appear to be urgent, such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ plan to earmark NT$260 million to help restaurants and retailers incorporate e-commerce technologies into their operations, Wang said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
At least 25,000 restaurants and eateries nationwide already use food-delivery companies, while about 63 percent of retailers have already embraced e-commerce, she said.
Stores and retailers should be allowed to engage in fair competition in a free market, and efforts to help digitize their services should be funded by the general budget, not a special budget, she added.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told Wang that although existing policies and budgets are helping stores and retailers digitize their services, the ministry would use the proposed budget to help business directly affected by COVID-19.
RENOVATION PROJECTS
Wang asked Shen why NT$500 million was earmarked to renovate traditional and night markets, when a NT$475 million project with the same purpose had already been implemented.
Shen said that the proposal included in the special budget would be an improvement over the existing project, as the government believes that the timing is ideal for such efforts.
Prior to the outbreak, market stall operators shunned the government’s renovation projects, such as adjusting the pathways, improving drainage systems or installing lighting or canopies at the markets, saying that such projects could hurt their businesses, Su said.
With fewer people shopping in such markets now, it is an ideal time to tackle renovation projects, so when the outbreak blows over, consumers would have a better shopping experience, Su added.
However, Wang said that the government should use the special budget on more practical policies, such as boosting disease-prevention measures and disinfection at stores and markets, so that more people would be willing to shop there, despite the outbreak.
To mitigate the economic losses sustained by small and medium-sized enterprises, the government could let them postpone filing income taxes and pay their taxes in installments after the outbreak is contained, she said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS