In an abrupt change of policy, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration announced yesterday that it would increase the monthly subsidy for elderly farmers by NT$1,000 (US$33), abandoning the previously proposed NT$316 increase in the wake of criticism from across party lines.
The subsidy for farmers aged 65 and above will be increased from the current NT$6,000 a month to NT$7,000, which is what the Democratic Progressive Party caucus had initially proposed.
The increase will be adjusted every four years and the eight types of subsidies for the elderly, the disabled and low-income families will also be raised, with the increase ranging from 16.67 percent to 33.27 percent, according to the central government.
The change of heart came exactly one month after Ma said the monthly subsidy for farmers aged 65 and over would be increased by NT$316 to reflect the 5.27 percent average increase in the consumer price index over the past four years since the pension plan was last adjusted in 2007.
At the time, Ma defended the budget plan as a measure to prevent farmers from becoming targets for “political bidding” during election campaigns.
Ma yesterday acknowledged that the previous version had sparked accusations from various groups of insufficient assistance for farmers and other minority groups.
Ma said he decided to call for a meeting to discuss the issue on Thursday night after meeting with Taiwan Organization for Disadvantaged Patients secretary-general Yang Yu-hsing (楊玉欣) and other civic groups earlier that day to talk about subsidy programs for civic groups.
“They told me that many social welfare subsidies haven’t been adjusted for 10 to 18 years and suggested that the government should make up for the shortfall, so that the systemized subsidy programs would help more people, and they persuaded me of their case,” he said on the sidelines of a campaign event in Taipei City.
Ma promised to make the subsidy programs fair while systematizing them, and said the new version would help those who are really in need.
“Only by seeking fairness in the programs will discrimination be eliminated in society, and systematizing the subsidy programs will also prevent the payments from becoming a tool during election campaigns. The adjustment has been made under the same goals,” he added.
The meeting between Ma and Yang was arranged one day after the latter was nominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Wednesday as a legislator-at-large candidate amid the party’s efforts to accentuate minority issues.
Ma then held a closed-door meeting with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Cabinet officials and KMT officials on Thursday night to finalize the new version of the subsidy programs.
According to the proposed plan, the Council of Agriculture will spend an extra NT$8.24 billion in next year’s budget on farmers’ subsidies, while the total for the eight social welfare subsidies next year will be NT$12.3 billion.
The plan will still include an “anti-rich” clause, whereby applicants with an annual income of more than NT$500,000 from non-agricultural sources or who own non-agricultural real estate worth NT$5 million or more will not be eligible.
Many KMT lawmakers had warned Ma about the negative impact of the initial plan on the party’s odds in the upcoming elections and urged the president to increase the farmers’ subsidy by at least NT$1,000.
Asked about the reversal of position, Wu told reporters the initial increase calculated in accordance with the estimated 5.27 percent rise in consumer prices was “not good enough.”
In light of the fact that some pensions have not been adjusted for many years, the method of calculation “was not fair to social welfare recipients” and “failed to resonate powerfully with the public,” he said.
“We were truly haunted by the proposal of a NT$316 increase in farmers’ monthly pensions. It has become a populist issue, which was unavoidable because it was inconsistent with past practice of a NT$1,000 increase,” Wu said.
He said that the government’s “benign intention” to establish a formula for pension adjustment to depoliticize the issue had been “distorted.”
KMT lawmakers praised the policy change.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said his caucus would submit a new amendment to the legislature and facilitate deliberation, with an aim to put the new pension plan into effect on Jan. 1 next year.
KMT Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞), who had suggested raising the monthly subsidy to at least NT$7,500, said the new proposal was acceptable.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS