Shopping voucher plan clears a hurdle

The Cabinet led by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan plans to start distributing consumer vouchers valued at NT$3,600 to citizens ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday as part of a program to encourage consumer spending and stimulate the flagging domestic economy.

The legislative caucus of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) had initially planned to hold directly the second reading of the bill in order to expedite the process.

But in the latest decision, it agreed to send the bill to the relevant legislative committee for review and discussion to show the party’s respect for the wishes of opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.

The DPP lawmakers in turn agreed to give up their attempt to block the move by having the bill reconsidered and prolonging the whole procedure.

KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih said the bill will be sent to the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee for preliminary review Dec. 1.

The Procedure Committee will then place it on the legislature’s agenda for Dec. 5 with the hope of clearing its third and final reading on the same day.

The government is aiming to have the consumer vouchers issued by Jan. 18 — one full week ahead of the start of the Chinese New Year. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng has said that the legislature must adopt the bill by Dec. 26 at the latest if that target is to be met.

The plan calls for an outlay of NT$82.9 billion.

DPP lawmakers said they have no intention of boycotting the consumer voucher program. But they need to continue airing their view that the government should directly give cash to the people instead of distributing the coupons.

Some of their constituents prefer to have cash rather than the vouchers, they said.

The KMT’s Legislator Lin stressed that anyone trying to boycott the bill during the Economic Committee’s review will in effect be blocking the issuance of the vouchers to consumers and will have “to assume full responsibility” in this regard, said

But the DPP lawmakers successfully blocked the legislative procedure for the much larger NT$500 billion economic stimulus package that covers some large-scale public infrastructure projects proposed by Premier Liu.

The action effectively “freezed” the process for one full month for inter-party consultations.

KMT lawmakers said there is no veritable reason for the DPP to boycott the program because the contents generally parallel to a similar package proposed by the previous administration when the DPP held the power.

Nevertheless, they said they aim to ratify the stimulus program and approve the needed budget by the end of December.

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