The government should issue cash handouts instead of coupons as part of its relief and recovery plan for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
The effectiveness of the coupon policy proposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs might be limited due to its use of mobile payment systems and other restrictions, the party said.
Older people and those unfamiliar with mobile payment systems might find redeeming the coupons inconvenient, it said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The proposed coupons, which would give people a 25 percent discount on some purchases, “ignores the problem that poor and unemployed people have trouble paying even basic expenses,” it added.
Citing Singapore’s response as an example, KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that the city-state’s government plans to give S$600 (US$420) to citizens aged 21 and older.
In Taiwan, the tourism and transportation industries can receive NT$10,000 (US$332) per month in wage subsidies for each worker, while service industries hit especially hard by the pandemic can receive up to NT$20,000 per month per employee, said Wang, who chairs the KMT Culture and Communications Committee.
In Singapore, the government is subsidizing 75 percent — to a maximum of S$4,600 — of all workers’ wages this month, she said.
Local governments have “almost no role” in a NT$60 billion special budget approved by the Legislative Yuan last month, the KMT said.
Local governments have a better understanding than the central government about which local small businesses, self-employed workers and geographic areas require aid, the party said, adding that the central government should give local governments a more active role in distributing relief funds.
Amid the intensifying calls from the KMT for cash handouts this week, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Tuesday said that the effectiveness of distributing cash would not be great.
Instead of doing what is “most convenient” and handing out cash, the government has taken the time to make plans for each industry, he said.
If the government only handed out cash, some people would spend it, while others might save the money, he added.
Many of the Executive Yuan’s plans involve giving out cash, Su said.
However, not everyone would be eligible, he said, adding that cash is being given to disadvantaged groups, such as mid-to-low income households and people with special circumstances in need.
An example of special circumstances would be if an employer is unable to pay its employees, he added.
The government is not saying that cash handouts cannot be made, but it would be “lazy” to not distinguish between wealthy and poor groups, and make everyone eligible, Su said.
Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on Tuesday told a news conference that if the government gave every resident NT$12,000 like Singapore, the money would also trickle down to business owners, who would still proceed with any plans to cut their payrolls, even after receiving a handout.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu, Peng Wan-hsin and Lin Liang-sheng
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400