Virus Outbreak: Stimulus coupon program a ‘triple deception’: KMTBy Lin Liang-sheng and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerA Ministry of Economic Affairs estimate of the economic benefits created by a stimulus coupon program is unrealistic, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said yesterday, calling it an attempt to scam the public and self-delusion by the government. The program is unbecoming, as the government seems to be offering the world when it is only providing NT$2,000 in stimulus coupons, for which NT$1,000 must first be spent, he said. KMT Legislator Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) called the policy a triple deception: a deception of the public and officials deceiving themselves after deceiving deities. Tseng said that as the program has not resolved the potential problem of the substitution effect, the policy’s efficacy is dubious. The KMT finding faults with the coupon program is an admission that there is a possibility people would fail to use cash handouts or that cash handouts would trigger the substitution effect, he added.

Source: Taipei Times June 03, 2020 15:56 UTC