The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed special budgets for economic resilience and disaster relief, including funds for a NT$10,000 (US$326.74) public handout, although both either omitted or froze funding for improvements to the electricity grid.
In revisions to the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例), legislators raised the funding ceiling from NT$545 billion to NT$570 billion and set a timeline for distributing the cash handout.
The Executive Yuan originally proposed a NT$410 billion special budget, which included NT$100 billion in subsidies for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The NT$10,000 cash handout, proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), raised the budget’s ceiling to NT$545 billion.
Further amendments approved by the Cabinet earlier this month raised the budget’s ceiling to NT$590 billion — including an initial special budget of NT$570 billion followed by an additional NT$20 billion based on industry needs.
This version also allocated NT$20 billion for Taipower to upgrade the power grid, but this was rejected by opposition lawmakers yesterday.
The universal cash payments are to be distributed starting within one month of the special budget’s promulgation and should be completed within seven months, making it likely that payments would start in October.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said after the act’s approval that the Cabinet would next month submit a special budget to the legislature in line with the law’s requirement that the Executive Yuan submit a separate appropriations bill within one month of enactment.
During the legislature’s discussions yesterday, KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said that her party had kept its promise to give money back to citizens.
The NT$20 billion for Taipower was cut as the government is already working on such a project, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) said.
Wu said that the Executive Yuan’s proposal sought to support industries, people’s livelihoods and the disadvantaged, but the cuts to Taipower show that the opposition would sacrifice the nation’s industrial growth.
The special budget would be in effect through Dec. 31, 2027.
Lawmakers also passed a NT$60 billion special budget for reconstruction in the aftermath of Typhoon Danas and extensive flooding last month.
The full amount, raised from the NT$56 billion initially proposed by the Cabinet, passed with no cuts, although three motions to freeze aspects of the budget proposed by the TPP were passed.
Two items under the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ electricity budget were conditionally frozen at 10 percent, while one item under the National Communications Commission was conditionally frozen at 30 percent.
Typhoon Danas and torrential rain hit southern Taiwan last month, leading the Cabinet to propose the NT$56 billion special budget on Aug. 7.
The amount was then raised to NT$60 billion, which was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday last week and by a joint review of five legislative committees on Wednesday. Cross-party negotiations were completed on Thursday, and the third reading was finalized yesterday morning.
The NT$60 billion would be funded via debt issuance, with the majority — about NT$50.1 billion — allocated to economic development.
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