Taiwanese and eligible foreign nationals are to have several options for collecting their NT$6,000 (US$196.85) dividend from last year’s tax surplus, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.
An online platform is being created to allow a direct transfer of funds to the bank accounts of eligible people who register on its Web site, the ministry said.
Taiwanese and eligible foreign nationals — those with permanent residence status and resident spouses of Taiwanese nationals — are also to have the option of collecting the dividend from their bank or at a post office bank counter within six months from the start of the program, Deputy Minister of Finance Juan Ching-hua (阮清華) said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Those who receive monthly Labor Insurance pensions, farmers’ welfare allowance and other such benefits are to have the NT$6,000 deposited into their designated accounts, Juan said.
Residents of Hualien’s Wanrong Township (萬榮), Taitung’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) and Pingtung’s Shihzih Township (獅子) are to receive the dividend by direct cash transfer after police precincts conduct a census of the number of eligible people.
Under the disbursement proposal, which is pending legislative approval, NT$141.7 billion has been allocated for Taiwanese citizens and eligible foreign nationals, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
People who opt to receive the dividend via the online platform or at banks or post offices must present a National Identification Card, Alien Permanent Resident Certificate or other such identification, Juan said.
People should be wary of scams and not pass any personal information to non-official sources, and wait for the government’s official announcement before submitting any personal information, Juan added.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a disbursement of NT$380 billion in tax surplus to boost the economy. A third of that total is being distributed in the dividend program.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at