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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Economy & Trade

Taipei Mayor Announces NT$30,000 Maternity Subsidy Without Budget, Critic Says: Where Is the Money?

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an announced a NT$30,000 subsidy for every mother for each birth, without an income cap.
  • He said the estimated NT$380 million cost would be added through a supplementary budget after a city councilor questioned its absence from the proposed budget.
  • Political worker Chou Hsuan criticized the administration, saying the subsidy remains unfunded and has not yet been submitted to the council.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an announced on August 19 that the city would introduce a NT$30,000 postnatal meal subsidy for every mother, regardless of income. The proposal was presented as a way to reduce the cost of postnatal recovery and confinement meals.

Where is the money for this policy?

— Chung Pei-lingThe Taipei city councilor questioned the absence of funding in the proposed city budget.

But when Taipei’s city council began questioning next year’s budget, councilor Chung Pei-ling asked where the money for the policy had been allocated. Chiang replied that the Health Department would include the funding through a supplementary budget, with the total cost estimated at NT$380 million.

Chung then pointed out that the budget submitted by Taipei City Government contained no such allocation. Political worker Chou Hsuan reacted angrily in a Facebook post, questioning why the administration announced the policy before confirming whether the relevant departments had the money available.

We will use a supplementary budget, to be prepared by the Health Department. The current estimate is NT$380 million.

— Chiang Wan-anThe Taipei mayor explained how his administration plans to fund the announced subsidy.

Chou said the subsidy currently had no firm financial backing because the supplementary budget had not yet been submitted to the council. The proposed NT$30,000 payment therefore remains pending rather than available to Taipei mothers.

So, Chiang Wan-an, did you not ask your own departments before launching the policy whether there would be money next year?

— Chou HsuanChou criticized the mayor for announcing the subsidy before confirming its budget.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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