The legislature yesterday approved an additional NT$159.893 billion (US$5.76 billion) of funding for COVID-19 relief and prevention — NT$170 million less than the Cabinet’s proposal of NT$160 billion.
Approved by the Cabinet in September, the additional funds are to be allocated to COVID-19 prevention and control, and financial relief, including stimulus spending.
However, following the completion of the legislature’s review on Wednesday, the proposed funding was cut by NT$170 million.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
COVID-19 prevention and control — including enhancing testing capacity, establishing screening stations, amd mass vaccination programs, opening COVID-19 consultation hotlines and procuring medication for treatment of patients — is to be allocated NT$18.9 billion, a supplementary budget plan from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.
A further NT$141.1 billion would fund the Quintuple Stimulus Voucher program, several secondary voucher programs and emergency relief funding to help spur a domestic economic recovery, the DGBAS said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) proposed cutting the budget because the cost of printing the vouchers was lower than anticipated and several hundred thousand people are expected to not claim their vouchers.
Funds for the Ministry of Economic Affairs were reduced by NT$100 million, while KMT Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) proposed cutting NT$4 million of funds from the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s budget.
However, Yeh urged the ministry to expand its testing capacity, improve vaccine research and bolster the protection of personal information collected by its SMS contact tracing system.
The special budget for COVID-19 response is capped at NT$840 billion, in accordance with an amendment to the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例).
The first four rounds of funding have totaled NT$679.4 billion.
With the addition of the current round of funding, proposed to help deal with the aftermath of a domestic COVID-19 outbreak in May, the total amount of the special budget has reached NT$839 billion.
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