The legislature may approve a Cabinet proposal to distribute consumer vouchers by Friday of next week at the earliest, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday.
“If everything goes smoothly and the bill wins the support of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] caucus, we would pass the special legislation by Nov. 28 at the earliest,” KMT caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said at a press conference.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced on Tuesday the government’s plan to issue consumer vouchers valued at NT$3,600 to every citizen. By taking out loans equaling NT$82.9 billion (US$2.5 billion), the government is hoping to boost the nation’s economic growth next year by 0.64 percent.
Under the plan, by Lunar New Year on Jan. 24, Taiwanese nationals can claim the vouchers at their household registration offices by showing documents proving citizenship.
The expiration date of the vouchers will be Dec. 31 next year, while the face value of each voucher note has yet to be determined.
The vouchers can be used at any store with an official business registration, meaning vendors at night markets or traditional markets will not be able to accept the vouchers.
Liu said that the program does not exclude the wealthy because it is designed to “stimulate consumption to get the economy going” and “not to provide social assistance.”
In a bid to legitimize the policy, the Cabinet has to write a special piece of legislation for the program before requesting a special budget, as borrowing the funds conflicts with Article 23 of the Budget Law (預算法), which states that funds raised by loans must be used in capital investments, and Article 4 of the Public Debt Act (公共債務法), which places a debt ceiling on loans.
The bill will then have to be submitted to the legislature’s Procedure Committee before it can be put to preliminary review or to second and third reading.
The bill can skip a preliminary review if the legislature’s plenary session agrees.
Chang said the premier would be invited to report the details of the policy to the legislature after the special legislation is approved, while legislative committees would hold joint meetings to review the special budget requests intended for the vouchers.
If everything goes well, the legislature may approve the requests by as early as Dec. 12, Chang said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) urged the Cabinet to address only the voucher policy in its special budget requests and to keep the focus of the requests simple.
Wang’s remarks came in response to the premier’s plan to also take out loans to increase investment in public works and to boost industries.
Wang urged both the KMT and the DPP to deal with the Cabinet’s special legislation and budget requests rationally.
In response, DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference that the government would spend between NT$8 billion and NT$10 billion printing the vouchers and sending them to recipients by mail.
If the government offered cash rather than vouchers, each person could receive NT$4,000 instead of just NT$3,600.
Lai said the government was trying to implement the DPP’s cash subsidy proposal, but to save face it was issuing vouchers rather than cash.
DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said that offering cash would reduce the cost of the program, boost monetary circulation and benefit vendors excluded by the voucher plan.
Also See: Lawmakers question voucher program
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —