A total of NT$81.58 billion (US$2.52 billion) in consumer vouchers have been cashed, accounting for 97.98 percent of those issued, although shops and stores may cash remaining vouchers until Nov. 2, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday.
The government issued NT$83.26 billion in consumer vouchers, giving each citizen NT$3,600 between January and April in an effort to raise GDP by 0.66 percentage points this year.
While the vouchers expired on Wednesday, stores and shops can continue to cash them at financial institutions free of charge until Nov. 2, the statement said.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), which orchestrated the stimulus plan to allay the pain of the economic downturn, said the vouchers helped raise GDP by between 0.3 and 0.5 percentage points based on a preliminary study.
CEPD chief secretary York Liao (廖耀宗) said the study is ongoing and the council would brief the legislature of the final findings later this month.
Government data showed most vouchers — nearly 50 percent — were used in February, while 15.74 percent were used in March and 7.45 percent were used in January.
Liao said about 70 percent of the vouchers were used for purchases that would have been made anyway, dampening the intended multiplier effect.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the