"5x Stimulus Vouchers" will be launched at the end of September

Premier Su Chen-chang (行政院長蘇貞昌) together with the heads of relevant ministries and committees pointed out that there will be two versions of the preliminary concept for the planned release of the 160 billion left in the special relief budget. The plan is to launch stimulus coupons again to stimulate consumption. The "5x stimulus vouchers" (振興5倍券) plan of NT$1,000 for NT$5,000 will be adopted, and both physical and digital vouchers will be issued simultaneously. They will be launched in September at the earliest. Only low-income and disadvantaged groups can directly exchange for "5x vouchers" without cash.

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The government decided that the "5x vouchers" will be available at the end of September. Photo/Provided by the Executive Yuan

Executive Yuan (EY, 行政院) spokesperson Luo ping-cheng (羅秉成) pointed out that the launch of the "5x stimulus vouchers" is mainly for industries that have been severely affected by the epidemic which include restaurants, night markets, department stores, retail, sightseeing, lodging, art and cultural exhibitions.  The “5x stimulus vouchers” is planned to be based on the “3x vouchers” model last year. The direction is aimed towards wholesalers, retailers and restaurants, which are fully applicable. In the e-commerce part, it is expected that the "e-commerce whitelist" will be based on the “3x vouchers” model in 2020.

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The government's launch of the “3x vouchers” in 2020 was well received. Photo/Retrieved from "Apple Daily"

With the success of the 3x vouchers in 2020, the EY will expand the plan to a bigger scale in 2021, with the NT$1,000 for NT$5,000 program, with a budget of NT$110 billion, and both physical and digital vouchers will be issued simultaneously. However, when 3x vouchers were introduced last year, more people availed of the physical coupons than the digital coupons. Therefore, they will discuss plans to better promote the 5x vouchers. The official launch is scheduled at the end of September and will be released in conjunction with the vaccine coverage rate and when the epidemic is more stable, as this will strengthen the promotion of digital vouchers by that time.