Mon, Apr 27, 2026 page3

• KMT cash handout act advances to second reading

  • By Lin Hsin-han and Sam Garcia / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Draft amendments to the Budget Act (預算法) that would institutionalize universal cash handouts if tax revenue reaches 115 percent of the budgeted amount were advanced directly to a second reading and sent to cross-party negotiations by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Friday last week.

  A draft of the bill was first passed in committee review in March last year, but it was shelved in August after ruling and opposition parties failed to reach a consensus.

  While past handouts have been one-offs, the opposition is pushing to institutionalize returning tax revenue to the public when it significantly exceeds projections by establishing a clear and transparent mechanism, a KMT caucus member said yesterday.

  

  New Taiwan dollar notes are pictured in a photograph in front of the Web site for the cash handout program.

  Photo: CNA

  This is not just about handing out cash, they said, but about establishing a sustainable long-term system to safeguard people’s livelihoods.

  The Executive Yuan has maintained a conservative and even resistant stance, because it would subject public finances to clear rules rather than leaving them to the Executive Yuan’s discretion, they said.

  Decisions about when to issue handouts and how much to distribute rest almost exclusively with the Executive Yuan, concentrating that power in the hands of a few, they added.

  This is not about pleasing voters but fairness, since tax revenue comes from the people and should be returned when the government collects more than necessary, rather than becoming a tool to expand spending, the KMT caucus member said.

  “This is truly putting people’s livelihoods first,” they said.

  Since 2021, actual tax revenue has exceeded annual budget projections by more than NT$300 billion (US$9.52 billion) each year, the KMT caucus said at the Legislative Yuan.

  To clarify the use of surplus tax revenues, the caucus drafted an amendment adding Article 81-1 to the Budget Act, specifying the uses and allocations for excess tax revenue with the aim of addressing the issue through a formalized system.

  The draft amendment states that when annual net tax revenue reaches 115 percent of the budgeted amount, priority should be given to covering any gap between revenues and expenditures for that year; if there is a surplus, universal cash payments should be distributed.

  Since tax revenue comes from the public, any significant surplus should be returned to the people, the proposal says.

  Universal cash handouts would ease inflationary pressures, boost domestic consumption and allow people to share in economic growth, it adds.

  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) yesterday said that the opposition should stop proposing “profit without capital” and pass the central government budget quickly, as failure to do would ultimately harm the public.

  If there is a budget surplus, it reflects the DPP government’s success in driving economic growth rather than collecting too much taxes, he said. Any surplus should be retained so the state has “ammunition” to respond to international developments, especially as the opposition’s amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) have weakened the central government’s fiscal flexibility, he added.

  Lee urged the opposition to pass this year’s central government budget, saying that “one cannot expect a horse to run fast without feeding it.”

  Additional reporting by Chen Yun
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