While the unwillingness of some KMT lawmakers to re-register is threatening to upset the party's majority in the next legislative session, two KMT lawmakers vowed yesterday to stick with the party.
Taipei County-elected Wu Ching-chih (
The KMT is currently engaged in a drive to encourage all party members to re-register. The KMT touts a membership of 2.5 million. With less than one month left before the deadline, however, some legislators have yet to re-register.
Wu, who has thought about joining the People First Party, changed his mind yesterday after the KMT's secretary-general visited him personally to ask him to stay. There was also a subsequent meeting between Wu and Lien.
Wu said he will definitely "show due respect for Lien's feelings" and re-register.
Wu confirmed that PFP Chairman James Soong (
Meanwhile, Wong Chung-chun (
Wong, who is from the same local faction as Lee in Chiayi County, has been reluctant to re-register because of a disagreement with another faction from the region. The other three legislators who have not re-registered are Kaohsiung-elected Huang Chao-shun (
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RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
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
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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