Taiwan will hand out NT$10,000 in cash to every citizen next year, and the blue and green camps have now shifted to arguing over whether the amount should be raised. For the public it is good news, but where the money comes from remains a point of contention.

• Lai Ching-te has announced a universal cash handout of NT$10,000 per person next year, and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has urged the central government to raise the figure to NT$20,000.
• Puma Shen, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate for Taipei mayor, said that as long as there is no borrowing, no violation of the constitution, and disadvantaged groups are taken care of first, a larger handout can be discussed if a surplus remains.
• Shen stressed that this proposal comes from the Executive Yuan and involves no borrowing, and that funding for national health insurance, labour insurance, social welfare and the elderly farmers' allowance has also been increased — unlike the past practice of the Legislative Yuan cutting the budget and forcing the government to borrow.
• The green camp countered that Chiang Wan-an should first look at Taipei's own funding sources, and dug up a proposal from last year in which DPP city councillors in Taipei called on the city government to use its surplus of more than NT$50 billion to hand out NT$21,000 per person.

Outlook: the broad direction of a NT$10,000 universal handout is settled, and the coming back-and-forth will centre on whether the central and local governments each raise their own amounts, as well as on the policy contest in the Taipei election race.