Over 40,000 Citizens Reactive Household Registration in Jan. 疫情緩旅外國人紛返台 1月逾4萬人復籍

Over 40,000 ROC citizens who live abroad returned to Taiwan and reactivated their household registration in January. Some believe the N$6,000 cash rebate could be a factor.

Over 40,000 ROC citizens living abroad returned to Taiwan in the month of January to reactivate their household registration. Close to half of the registrations were in Greater Taipei. Taipei topped the list with 9,917, followed by New Taipei with 9,630, Taichung with 4,941, Kaohsiung with 4,414, Taoyuan with 4,012, and Tainan with 2,478.

Liu Chia-feng, Section Chief, Dept. of Civil Affairs, Taipei City: “Policies that impact daily life include health insurance, education, military service, and school status policies. Citizens care a lot about whether their household registration is active in Taiwan or which municipality it's active in.”

Household registration and national health insurance are closely linked. Another factor is the NT$6,000 cash rebate, which can be directly transferred into a citizen's bank account, withdrawn from ATMs or collected at post offices. However, many remote areas don't have banks or cash withdrawal facilities.

Wu Li-hua, Legislator (DPP): “Our local townships offices in remote and indigenous areas can create this kind of register and then help our police visit indigenous villages to make distributions.”

Chiu Chiu-yin, Deputy Economic Development Director, National Development Council: “The Executive Yuan has already set up an interministerial task force and it is working very, very hard to implement relevant plans. We hope every citizen can get their rebate and no one slips through the cracks.”

The Ministry of Digital Affairs says it is trying to come up with ideas for distribution channels for disadvantaged or special groups that don't require registration. The Ministry of Finance says it is trying to get banks to modify their ATM systems so that the rebate can be collected at around 80 percent of ATMs.

戶政事務所叫號聲此起彼落。隨著疫情趨緩、國境解封，春節連假期間，不少旅外國人紛紛返台恢復戶籍。全國22縣市，1月總計超過4萬人復籍，雙北就占了近半。北市9917人居全國之冠，其次則是新北的9630人，桃園市4012人，台中市1月全市達4941件，台南市民政局指出1月自國外遷入有2478人，高雄市1月也有4414人。

北市民政局戶籍行政科長劉嘉鳳指出：「跟民眾比較息息相關的，就像健保、就學、兵役、學籍。政府的政策，其實如果是跟戶籍相關的話，民眾就會一般比較在意說，戶籍是不是在國內，又是或是戶籍是不是在某一個縣市。」

戶籍和健保資格息息相關，另一個誘因還包括備受矚目的全民普發現金6000元。目前財政部已規劃銀行匯款入帳、ATM操作提領及郵局臨櫃辦理等3種領取方式。但對於缺乏金融服務機構及提款設備的偏鄉民眾，將難以領錢。

民進黨立委伍麗華建議：「我們地方原偏鄉的公所，他們可以來做這樣的一個名冊的造冊，然後協助我們的警察，可以一同的到部落去做定點發放。」

國發會經濟處副處長邱秋瑩表示：「行政院已經成立跨部會的推動小組，目前正在緊鑼密鼓的進行相關的規劃。希望能夠盡力做到這個，普發作業能夠簡政便民，而且不遺漏任何人。」

數位發展部則表示，目前正在討論對於弱勢或特殊族群新增發放管道，規劃不用先登記即可直接入帳；財政部也正協調公股銀行修改ATM系統加入發放，讓近8成的ATM，都可以領取6000元。