The 1988 hotline set up for people to inquire about the government’s COVID-19 relief and stimulus programs would take questions about the planned NT$6,000 (US$196) cash handout from tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.
The new service is aimed at helping people understand the multiple ways the one-time handout can be collected, the ministry said in a statement.
The hotline would also be used to prevent people from falling victim to fraud schemes, it said.
The telephone service, which was established in 2020 and has been available from 8:30am to 6:30pm every day, would still help people access COVID-19 relief, the ministry added.
The cash handout is part of a NT$380 billion economic stimulus package funded by a tax surplus from last year. Lawmakers are to vote on approving the handout on Friday.
Once the spending package has been approved, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would sign it on Saturday, which would allow the fund to be released after five working days, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said on Thursday.
The proposed stimulus package also includes funding for the Labor Insurance Fund, the National Health Insurance and state-run Taiwan Power Co, which have all been operating at a loss, an official said when the Cabinet unveiled the spending plan on Feb. 23.
Cash incentives would be offered to foreign nationals to spur inbound tourism, subsidies for public transportation and financial assistance to low-income households, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, would also be covered in the spending package.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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