The legislature today passed the third reading of a special act for rebuilding after Typhoon Danas and extensive flooding last month, raising the budget ceiling to NT$60 billion (US$2 billion).
The special act proposed by the Executive Yuan planned to allocate NT$56 billion, to be funded by special budgets in phases.
The legislature raised the budget ceiling of the special act, which states that the central government should provide subsidies when local governments are in need, while local authorities are not allowed to use the subsidies for other purposes.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The act is to be supervised by the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission.
The act serves to earmark a special budget and strengthen supervision to safely, effectively and swiftly carry out post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work and provide aid to people affected by Typhoon Danas and torrential rain last month.
The Cabinet’s plan listed Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi cities, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Nantou counties as areas affected by recent severe weather.
The legislature added Taitung, Hualien and Miaoli counties to the list.
The plan covers nine areas: agricultural facilities, electricity systems, telecommunications and cable TV systems, water and gas systems, public facilities, irrigation, roads and traffic, environmental hygiene, and social recovery and industry promotion.
The implementation period of the nine projects would last until the end of 2027.
The special act is to be in effect until the end of next year.
Along with the third reading of the act, the legislature also passed an incidental resolution concerning residents affected by flooding.
Apart from allowances granted under the Categories and Standards of Assistance for Flood Disasters (水災災害救助種類及標準), each household is entitled to a subsidy of NT$20,000 if their neighborhoods experiencing flood levels higher than 50cm.
Low-income households and the near-low-income households would be entitled to a subsidy of NT$30,000 in this case.
The Cabinet said it would abide by the resolution.
The bill was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday last week and was advanced to its second reading.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) initiated cross-party negotiations on Wednesday.
Lawmakers reached a consensus after five hours of discussion and agreed to handle the bill in today’s plenary session.
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