Although the new government has promised to give senior citizens 65 years of age and older a NT$3,000 monthly subsidy starting July 1, meeting this financial obligation could create problems, legislators warned yesterday.
In two legislative committee meetings yesterday, legislators questioned newly inaugurated officials over measures to raise the money to fulfill the proposed "333 family welfare program" (
The elderly pension has been given priority by the new government and is set to take effect on July 1. As a result, the plan will involve adjusting the central government budget for this fiscal year, which is to last until December 31, 2000.
The Ministry of Finance has proposed three options to deal with the financial demand. These include adjusting the existing budget allocations for social welfare spending, drawing money from the government reserve fund -- the so-called "secondary reserve" (
Drawing on the reserve fund has been considered by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) as the most feasible option. Most legislators, however, were strongly against this solution, which they argued is unlawful and has been raised "for convenience's sake."
"The reserve fund is intended to cope with provisional spending, rather than a new continuous policy," said KMT legislator Eric Chu (
Chu pointed out that the Budget Law only allows the Executive Yuan to draw money from the secondary reserve fund to cope with "contingent demands of policy" that require additional programs and funding, which does not include a new policy.
DPP legislator Lin Chung-cheng (
"If the reserve fund is to be spent on the pension scheme, we may not have any money left to deal with the potentially serious damage caused by a catastrophe," Lin warned.
Both Chu and Lin said the Executive Yuan should submit an additional budget proposal to the legislature for the scheme so as not to create the impression that the new government is trying to shy away from the legislature's supervision.
Independent legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (
Responding to the legislators' doubts, DGBAS director-general Lin Chuan (
Lin argued that it is completely lawful to finance the elderly pension program with the reserve fund.
"Since the policy was raised by President Chen Shui-bian (
Lin said this is a contingent demand on the policy, adding that the policy will become continuous in the second year when the budget will be needed on a regular basis.
Lin said while there is still a balance of NT$8.4 billion in the reserve fund, the elderly pension program will need an estimated NT$6 billion during the first six months of its implementation.
"We won't use up the reserve fund. We hope to spend as little as possible and we believe that NT$6 billion is within a tolerable range," Lin said.
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