Premier Su Tseng-chang said today that the government plans to issue "quintuple stimulus vouchers," which he billed as easy to get, easy to use, and beneficial, to expand the effectiveness of efforts to juice the economy and help carry forward overall economic development. His announcement came after a briefing by the National Development Council on the voucher program. He also commended the people of Taiwan for their collective work toward fighting the coronavirus and bringing the recent outbreak under control in just 90 days. He noted, however, that the impact on domestic demand-driven markets during this period was large.
Thanks to the collective efforts of the public following the instructions prescribed by the government disease prevention policy, Wednesday saw no new locally transmitted COVID cases, the premier said. This milestone was reached in just a short 90 days—new infections having reached a daily peak in the 700s back in May—and marks Taiwan's second virus-fighting success.
This most recent campaign to limit infection saw the government place restrictions on public venues, business and operations that heavily affected street vendors, shops, night markets, department stores and other such enterprises. Premier Su said that since the coronavirus outbreak has been brought under control, now is the time for the government to fund a new voucher program.
The quintuple stimulus vouchers build on the success of last year's triple stimulus vouchers. It is hoped the new voucher program will stimulate the economy on a wider scale, and bring back business to help those hard hit by the pandemic. After providing NT$162 billion (US$5.8 billion) in relief funds to help 9.4 million people, the government hopes the issuance of limited-time use cash under the quintuple stimulus voucher program will achieve the goals of spurring and stimulating the economy.
In addition to paper form, the quintuple stimulus vouchers will also be issued in digital form with even more options for using and registering to credit cards and e-payment tools. Subsidies will also be available for small businesses to purchase electronic payment systems, and special QR codes will be designed for businesses to identify users of digital vouchers.
Based on the success of its predecessor, the quintuple stimulus voucher program will hopefully provide even better results, the premier said. Since the vouchers will not be issued for some time yet, Premier Su instructed the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and other ministries to come up with a special budget for the quintuple stimulus voucher program and forward to the Legislature for deliberation.