The government plans to begin issuing consumer vouchers on Jan. 18 or Jan. 19, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Chairman Chen Tian-jy (陳添枝) said yesterday.
Explaining the details of the voucher plan to the legislature’s Economics Committee, Chen said the government would also consider shortening the validity of the vouchers to six months.
Since many people oppose the proposed ban on using the vouchers at foodstands or for taxis, Chen said the council would review details and come up with the final version of the plan within a week.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said fewer than 5,000 of the 60,000 food stall operators at the 480 public markets nationwide have business licenses.
As most housewives and other consumers buy foods at traditional markets on a daily basis, it would not make much sense if vouchers could not be used at these markets, Ting said.
While many details still need to be hammered out, Chen said the decision had been made to issue paper vouchers instead of plastic debit cards. He estimated the cost of printing each voucher at NT$1.1 to NT$1.2.
“The more face values available, the costs of these molds would become prohibitive. After the number of face values are determined, then it will be important to decide what quantities of each face value are to be printed,” Chen said.
Discussions with the central bank will help determine the exact allocations, he said.
Ting then suggested embedding voucher stamps into regular currency during the printing process to cut costs by reducing the need for new molds and additional papers.
The council’s proposal to print vouchers valued at NT$100, NT$200, NT$500 and NT$1,000 was also hotly contested on the legislative floor.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) urged government officials to drop the NT$200 voucher since the NT$200 bill had proven unpopular, although other legislators were in favor of it.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced the government planned to give each citizen NT$3,600 in vouchers to help boost consumer spending and revitalize the economy. The expiration date of the vouchers would be Dec. 31 next year, the Cabinet said on Tuesday.
The council has forecast the voucher plan will boost GDP by 0.64 percent next year.
The two major assumptions underlying the council’s model are full usage of the vouchers and a conservative economic multiplier effect of 0.04 percent.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) was unconvinced the vouchers would really provide a boost to the economy.
On average, each citizen spends NT$315,200 annually, which translates to 6 percent of GDP, so the council’s NT$3,600 per citizen voucher would represent just 1 percent of their annual average spending or only 0.06 percent of GDP, Lee said, not a boost of 0.64 percent.
“The assumption of 100 percent usage of these coupons is fundamentally flawed. It is unrealistic. The Council for Economic Planning and Development did not take substitution effect into consideration, it did not consider people might simply not use their vouchers and it did not foresee people converting their vouchers on the black market and saving the cash,” Lee said.
Lee said just providing cash would be a better alternative.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
VALUABLE STOCK: The company closed at NT$1,005 a share, on demand for AI and HPC chips, and is expected to issue a positive report during its earnings conference Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares rose 2.66 percent to close at a record high of NT$1,005 yesterday. as investors expect the company to continue benefiting from strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) chips. TSMC is the 19th member of the local bourse’s NT$1,000 stock club, which includes smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and electric transformer manufacturer Fortune Electric Co (華城電機). Yesterday’s rally swelled TSMC’s market capitalization to NT$26.06 trillion (US$802.3 billion) and contributed about 211 points to the TAIEX, which closed up 350.1 points, or 1.51 percent, to 23,522.53, another record high, Taiwan Stock
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), a subsidiary of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), yesterday said it is again offering a NT$100,000 discount for its entry-level n7 electric vehicle models. The n7’s price has gone down from NT$1.099 million to NT$999,000, Luxgen said, adding that there are 25,000 preorders for the model. MG Motor’s electric hatchback, the MG4, entered the market in the middle of last month, with a starting price of NT$990,000. China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which distributes MG vehicles in Taiwan, said it aims to sell 1,600 MG4s this year. MG, originally a British brand, was acquired by China’s SAIC Motor
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday. SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries. The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses. SK
Google on Monday said it is planning to invest in New Green Power Co (NGP, 永鑫能源), a solar energy developer owned by BlackRock Inc, to build 1 gigawatt of solar capacity in Taiwan to supply clean energy for its local data center and offices. “Our investment in NGP, subject to regulatory approval, will serve as development capital toward its 1 GW pipeline of new solar projects, catalyzing critical equity and debt financing for those projects,” Google’s Data Center Energy global head Amanda Peterson Corio wrote on a company blog. It did not disclose financial details. “We expect to procure up to 300 megawatts