Premier Jiang Yi-huah today approved setting aside NT$1 billion (US$32.8 million) annually from centrally-funded tax revenues to reward local governments that perform exceedingly well in upholding food safety, Executive Yuan Spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun announced.
On the other hand, the central government will deliberate reducing subsidies for the planned projects of local governments that do poorly in food-safety protection.
These policies are designed to incentivize local governments to work hand in hand with the central government to proactively crack down on illicit food manufacturers and safeguard the nation's food, Sun stated.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been tasked with formulating the concrete implementation measures.
The Executive Yuan said that food-safety issues can only be effectively resolved if the central and local governments work together. The central government is responsible for formulating and enacting the policy orientation, while local governments shoulder the responsibility of frontline investigations and crackdowns.
During recent interpellation at the Legislature, Premier Jiang stated that protection of food safety would be incorporated into both the administrative performance evaluations of local governments and the central government's allocation of special centrally-funded tax revenues to local governments.
To further spur local governments to crack down on "black-hearted" food operators, every year the central government will publicly release the results and rankings from its evaluations of local governments' food-safety performance.
The decision to set aside this NT$1 billion of annual bonus funding, made at a recent ad hoc meeting convened by the premier, is meant to galvanize local governments to proactively crack down on illegal food producers, demonstrate the administration's determination to protect food safety, and discourage local governments from ignoring people's complaints and taking no action to deal with suspected violations.
Sun pointed out that according to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, the special centrally-funded tax revenues are provided to the local governments "for use in emergencies and other major matters." In past years the revenues have been chiefly used to assist local governments in disaster relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation, and in carrying out cooperative projects corresponding to the pressing needs or major policies of the central government.
Examples of such cooperative projects include employment programs initiated by the central government and the monetary rewards dispensed to local governments for soliciting investments. The application and review procedures for these projects are formulated by the respective competent agencies.