Teacher associations yesterday cried foul over the planned restoration of income tax on schoolteachers, saying their wages remain low compared with other government employees.
Several KMT lawmakers expressed sympathy for their grievances and urged the government to make a sweeping review of the tax system in an attempt to ease its cash shortage.
Earlier, the Cabinet unveiled a policy bill that calls for scraping the income tax exemption for military service members and teachers from junior high school down, effective the beginning of next year.
"There exists a significant gap between the income of primary schoolteachers and that of civil servants," Wu Kuang-hsun (吳光勳), chairman of teacher's association in Nantou County, told a hearing in the legislature. "The former have to work longer hours and shoulder greater responsibilities. It would be unfair to cut their benefits if their income stays unchanged."
He noted that the Ministry of National Defense has pledged to raise the pay of lower-ranking servicemen and women to offset their financial losses.
Huang Hsiu-mong (
Huang pointed out that the government earlier made schoolteachers pay higher premiums for national health insurance, and now it is portraying them as a privileged group reluctant to give up their vested interests.
Lwo Shih-hsiung (
Lwo's colleagues Hsu Shu-po (
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