Free $5000 NTD vouchers for Taiwanese citizens, due to Covid

Reference article: https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202109090010

I have strong opinion toward this policy, so I decided to write my ideas down lol.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 has started to outbreak in Taiwan again. The government has decided to carry out the stimulus voucher policy again to deal with the economic loss due to the pandemic. The stimulus vouchers can boost domestic consumption, increase aggregate demand, and raise the real GDP.

During the last time the government gave out stimulus vouchers, they required the citizens to pay $1000 NTD cash in exchange for vouchers worth $3000 NTD. However, this time, the government was thinking about whether or not they should require the citizens to pay $1000 NTD cash in exchange for the vouchers. After intense debates in the parliament, they eventually decided to give out vouchers worth $5000 for free.

In my opinion, I don't think it is wise to eliminate the $1000 cash exchange. Once we don't require this $1000 NTD cash exchange, the opportunity cost for the government is $1000 NTD / person. If one million people receive this voucher, the opportunity cost is 1 billion NTD.

I would say that most of the people who are receiving these vouchers will not spend these vouchers on the industries that are seriously affected by the pandemic, especially when the vouchers can be bound with personal credit cards and e-payments. Personally, I would like to spend my vouchers to buy some sports cards, and I don't think the sports card industry is the industry that requires help from the government.

If the government has the 1 billion NTD instead, they have the budget to target the impacted industries and subsidize or create policies that assist them directly.

Since the direct result of "requiring" and "not requiring," the $1000 NTD cash exchange will both be a $5000 NTD cash flow per person into the economy, which is the same. Therefore I see no reason not to ask for the $1000 NTD cash exchange.

Nine-in-one elections in 2022, I think I have realized something...^^