The legislature yesterday passed a highly anticipated spending plan to redistribute surplus tax revenue, including a NT$6,000 (US$197.67) handout to citizens and eligible foreign nationals beginning on April 6.
The bill to distribute NT$379.9 billion from surplus tax revenues was approved by lawmakers across party lines after they agreed to cut NT$120 million, or 3.29 percent, from the proposed NT$380 billion.
The bill, proposed by the Cabinet late last month, budgets tax surplus from fiscal 2022 and would be used until 2025 to cover debts accumulated by state-run companies and programs, and provide incentives to help boost the economy.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
A total of NT$141.7 billion is budgeted for the NT$6,000 cash handout foreign nationals with permanent residency and resident spouses of Taiwanese nationals are also eligible to receive.
Foreign nationals without permanent residency are not eligible, regardless of whether they have paid taxes in Taiwan.
Other allocations include NT$30 billion to the Labor Insurance fund, NT$20 billion to the National Health Insurance fund and NT$50 billion to state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), all of which have been operating at a loss.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to receive NT$31.7 billion for subsidies to small and medium-sized enterprises and the manufacturing sector.
Another NT$10.3 billion is to go to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for financial assistance to low-income and lower-middle-income households, people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to receive NT$27.4 billion to subsidize public transportation fares and provide incentives for foreign tourists to visit Taiwan.
Aside from NT$1.3 billion that is being held in reserve, the remaining surplus revenues are to go to the education, culture and interior ministries for subsidies and programs.
Dozens of proposed changes to the bill were rejected yesterday after being put to the vote, including a proposal by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to raise the cash handout to NT$10,000.
Speaking after the bill’s passage, KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) said he hopes the cash handouts help Taiwanese, despite the failure of his party to increase the amount.
However, Tseng criticized the allocation of NT$50 billion to Taipower, saying the company’s financial problems were caused by the government’s failures in its energy policy.
Taipower has denied similar claims and blamed “soaring international fuel prices” for its losses.
The company recorded losses of NT$267.5 billion last year and NT$32.1 billion, before tax, in January, an increase of NT$5.9 billion over the same month last year.
Although the soaring cost of natural gas and other fuels was at the root of the losses, Taipower was not able to pass on the costs to power users as the government tried to manage inflation.
The government has also moved to use natural gas more aggressively in Taiwan’s overall power mix as it phases out nuclear power and reduces the use of coal-fired power plants because of emissions concerns, leaving Taiwan more vulnerable to increases in the fuel’s price.
Despite government reluctance to raise electricity prices, it agreed on March 17 to do so to “reflect costs.”
Households and small businesses are to see an average electricity price increase of 2.6 percent starting on Saturday next week, while industries would be affected by a more marked increase of 14.2 percent.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) thanked lawmakers shortly after the bill was passed and said the government would do its best to allocate the cash payments “as soon as possible.”
Online registration for the cash handouts began on Wednesday.
People who complete registration before Monday are to receive payment as early as April 6 via direct deposit, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said.
Retrieval via ATMs would be available from April 10, and at post offices from April 17.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS