The government is in the red and national liability has ballooned by NT$1.5 trillion (US$50 billion) compared with last year, placing Taiwan on the stage as a potential player in what may be Asia’s Greek tragedy, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津玲) said yesterday.
The government’s income next year is estimated to be NT$1.79 billion, but its expenditure stands at NT$1.95 billion, placing the nation NT$160 billion in debt, Yeh said, adding that the government was falling NT$200 billion more into debt every year.
The government has overestimated its tax income, and while the growth rate of the debt has slowed, the account liability has swelled tremendously, Yeh said.
Yeh also said that liability and debt growth were continuing to surge, adding that by June, liability accrued by all levels of government reached NT$17 trillion — surpassing the nation’s annual income.
The factor contributing the most to liability growth in the past year was labor insurance, which amounted to NT$1.3 trillion, NT$948 billion more than its estimated annual growth of NT$394 billion, Yeh said.
Unless the Bureau of Labor Insurance made a gross error in its calculations, the discrepancy is a conscious action designed to scare workers with the idea that “the Labor Insurance Fund would go broke,” Yeh said.
“If President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration does not tackle the annuity funding issue, the nation stands to become the next Greece and default on its debts,” she added.
Yeh said that regardless of the figures’ accuracy, the nation has a tremendous amount of liability and is seeing shortages among all four government funds — the Labor Insurance Fund, the labor pension, the civil service pension and the planned annuity fund.
The funds are the main source of pensions for retirees.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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