Cabinet finalizes plan to boost COVID-19 bailout by almost NT$1 trillion

Major additions to the COVID-19 bailout plan have been approved by the Cabinet and will now enter the legislature for review. The Cabinet is seeking a total package worth NT$1.05 trillion, an unprecedented bailout and stimulus package intended to keep Taiwan’s economy rolling along until the pandemic is over. The Cabinet met on Thursday to agree the details and immediately held a press conference to publicize the plan, which includes new subsidies for both employees and the self-employed, as well as extra spending vouchers. First the first time in his premiership, Su Tseng-chang himself presided over Thursday’s post-meeting presser. Surrounded by a coterie of ministers, he announced official updates to the coronavirus bailout plan.台灣讓大家度難關。”Su Tseng-changPremierOur original special budget was aimed at what was at the time an epidemic in China. It is now a pandemic. So the budget must be increased now. We are preparing to save Taiwan and help everyone through this with a budget of NT$1.05 trillion.The budget plan breaks down as follows. There’s the NT$60 billion special budget already approved for Phase 1. The Cabinet is seeking an extra NT$150 billion for Phase 2. To pay for Phase 1, it had reallocated NT$40 billion from the budgets of several ministries. For Phase 2, it plans to redirect NT$100 billion from sources including the Employment Security Fund. It will also bring in NT$700 billion’s worth of credit from the central bank, Postal Savings Bank, and other public banks. Altogether the package is worth NT$1.05 trillion. Kung Ming-hsinMinister Without PortfolioThe part that pertains to the economics ministry is the increase to the credit limit, as well as increased wage subsidies for workers. The Ministry of Labor will have subsidies for the income of people who are self-employed. Our original stimulus measures included some NT$2 billion for spending vouchers. We’re now planning a new coupon that will take the total value past NT$10 billion.Shen Jong-chinEconomics ministerThe coupons will be distributed via a platform. For the elderly, they will be distributed via the seniors’ Concessionaire Easycards. It will be worth up to NT$1,000 per person per month.Su Tseng-changPremierThe key thing is that businesses cannot go bust. People cannot lose their jobs. Supply chains cannot break down. Finance cannot dry up. This is our top goal. But the situation is very dangerous, so the government is working flat out. At our meeting we just passed these amendments to the special budget.At the premier’s insistence, ministers across the Cabinet have come together to agree the plan. The only member of the conference wearing a mask was transportation minister Lin Chia-lung, igniting questions about why no one else was following guidance.Lin Chia-lungTransport ministerI don’t strictly have to be wearing this. But earlier a secretary from the Tourism Bureau was identified as a contact of confirmed cases. He’s been tested and come out negative now, and I didn’t have direct contact with him. But holding myself to highest personal health standards, I decided to wear one anyway.Chen Shih-chungHealth ministerWhen we say social distancing, we mean meetings in public with people outside of a fixed inner circle. Today all of us here are Cabinet ministers and this is our inner circle. We meet together every day. Now, when the photographers want to come close to us, then they must wear a mask.It was an unusually complete lineup of top Cabinet ministers, all presenting a united front in the new response to the crisis. Now it remains to be seen whether these latest measures will do the job.