An additional NT$9.2 billion (US$323.9 million) in relief funds has been requested mostly to sustain service operators at the nation’s airports for another six months as their businesses remain disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday.
The proposal has been submitted to the Executive Yuan, which is to convene an interdepartmental meeting within one week to determine the exact amount that can be allocated, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
The funds would be used to assist with nine categories of expenses, four of which are associated with service operators at airports, ministry officials said.
Businesses at the international airports at Taoyuan, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung would receive subsidies for the use of public facilities at airports, operations and employee salaries, they added.
An estimate of an additional NT$5 billion in relief funds was disclosed on Monday, but the amount required has increased to NT$6.217 billion, the ministry said.
The funding would also be used to partially cover the salaries of travel industry workers, it added.
It would also help quarantine hotels, disease-prevention taxis and airport buses to cover higher operating costs from compliance with the government’s disease prevention measures, the ministry said.
About NT$101.25 million would be used to subsidize interest payments that airlines, ground service companies and airline catering companies would be charged if they accept the NT$25 billion in government-backed loans, it said.
Ship operators providing direct service to China from Kinmen or Matsu would receive subsidies from the Maritime and Port Bureau for the use of port facilities and employee salaries.
Taiwan International Ports Corp would give subsidies to agents of international cruise ships for leasing office space at the seaports, the ministry said.
In other news, Lin said that the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Central Epidemic Command Center would review the seven-day quarantine requirement for flight and cabin crews about one month after the stricter policy took effect on Friday last week.
Previously, airline workers returning from overseas flight duty were required to undergo a three-day home quarantine, but the government decided to enforce a stricter policy after some airline employees were found to have broken the rules and transmitted COVID-19 locally.
Some pilots have said the new policy is “inhumane.”
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS