Chairman Chen Tian-jy of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) made the announcement while delivering a report on the details of the voucher plan at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Economics Committee yesterday.

He said that even with one week's time, all of the NT$82.9 billion worth of vouchers would probably not be completely distributed before the holiday began.

But it would give adequate time to those who really need the shopping coupons to pick up and use them during the long the long holidays, he said.

Chen advised others who are not in urgent need of money to wait until after the holidays to avoid forming long lines and crowding at local household registration offices, where the vouchers are to be handed out.

However, Chen added, there are still hurdles to be overcome as the voucher plan involves problems like completing the necessary legal procedures and printing issues.

Time is extremely tight if the government's target date of Jan. 18 or 19 is to be met, he said. Chen said he personally thinks the whole project is most likely to kick off on Jan. 19, a working Monday.

Legislation

Lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who continued pushing for a different approach of giving people tax rebates or cash, opposed a plan of the ruling Kuomintang to speed up the legislative process.

They said the special statute needs to go through the standard three-phase review and deliberation by the parliament.

But KMT lawmakers stressed the voucher plan is part of the efforts of the Cabinet led by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan to try to stimulate consumer spending as a measure to help revitalize the domestic economy.

They planned to skip the first phase of having a committee to review the Cabinet's plan.

All members of the legislative branch may voice their opinions during the second and third readings of the bill at the plenary sessions so that all people in the nation will gain the benefits as early as possible, the KMT lawmakers said.

They estimated the legislation work can be completed on Nov. 28 at the earliest if the DPP does not obstruct the procedure.

Printing job

Officials at the printing shop of the Central Bank of China said they considered to produce the coupons with six bills in denomination of NT$500 plus three bills of NT$200 each.

This will give each recipient a total of nine paper bills for the NT$3,600 purchasing subsidy.

They said their staff have to work around the clock to complete the job in time.

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