All citizens should pay: vice premier

Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said yesterday that he would urge the legislature to suspend a regulation that exempts military personnel and elementary and junior high school teachers from paying taxes.

"We need more money to serve the people," Wu said.

"At the legislature, nobody [legislators] would support us when it comes time to collect taxes. On the contrary, [legislators] are cooperative only when there are proposals to give away money or benefits to the public," the vice premier said. "How can we serve the public if we do not have a budget?"

According to the Income Tax Law (所得稅法), military personnel and public school teachers do not have to pay income taxes. Wu said that an amendment to the law that suspends soldiers' and teachers' tax-exempt privileges was approved by the Cabinet, and has been pending at the legislature for months. But lawmakers are extremely hesitant to pass the amendment, Wu said.

"It is my sincere hope that lawmakers will authorize the amendment before the current legislative session comes to an end at the end of the month -- which has another week to go," Wu said.

The vice premier also said that the government's tax revenue only makes up 12.6 percent of GDP.

"Only Hong Kong people pay less tax money than we do. For most developed countries such as the US, their income taxes make up 20 percent to 30 percent of their GDP," Wu said.

Wu also cited his boss, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who has asked the Cabinet to follow through with necessary and important policies and urge the passage of laws that concern the budget.

The vice premier said that many international research organizations who study foreign governments do not give Taiwan a lot of credit in terms of efficiency. But he attributed Taiwan's bureaucratic inefficiency to the current gridlock in the legislature.

"In a democratic country, the government cannot do anything without authorization from its elected members. To make the administration run smoothly, government officials and lawmakers need to work together to make it happen," Wu said.

"That is what we are expecting from the legislature," he added.