The Legislature Friday approved an additional NT$159.893 billion in funding for COVID-19 relief and prevention in Taiwan -- an NT$170 million cut from the Cabinet's proposed NT$160 billion.
Approved by the Cabinet in September, the additional funds will be allocated to COVID-19 prevention and control, and financial relief including stimulus spending.
However, following the completion of the Legislature's review on Dec. 8, the proposed funding was eventually slashed by NT$170 million.
An NT$18.9 billion portion of the funding will go toward COVID-19 prevention and control, including enhancing Taiwan's testing capacity, establishing screening stations in communities, setting up mass vaccination programs, opening COVID-19 consultation hotlines, and procuring medication for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, according to the supplementary budget plan put forth by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
DGBAS said that a further NT$141.1 billion will fund the government's stimulus voucher program, several secondary voucher programs, and emergency relief funding to help spur a domestic economic recovery.
Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (???) proposed cutting the budget because the printing of stimulus vouchers was lower than planned, in addition to the fact that several hundred thousand people are expected to not claim the vouchers.
Funds for the Ministry of Economic Affairs were reduced by NT$100 million, while Legislator Yeh Yu-lan (???) proposed cutting NT$4 million of funds for the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Yeh, however, urged the ministry to expand its testing capacity, improve vaccine research and strengthen the protection of personal information from the SMS Contact Tracing System.
Taiwan's special budget for its COVID-19 response is capped at NT$840 billion, in accordance with an amendment to the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens.
The first four rounds of funds totaled NT$679.4 billion.
With the addition of the current round of funding, proposed to help deal with the aftermath of the local outbreak in May 2021, the total amount of the special budget has reached NT$839 billion.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel