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Tsai urges Cabinet to allocate budget for tax refunds

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that her party would like to see the administration of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) divert money from its economic stimulus package to refund taxpayers and subsidize disadvantaged groups.

In response to Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) remarks on Tuesday questioning whether it was appropriate to do so because the government needed to borrow money to fund the package, Tsai said that the government had a surplus of tax money and did not necessarily need to borrow money.

Tsai made the remarks during a question-and-answer session at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting in Chiayi County yesterday afternoon.

Commenting on the performance of Ma and his administration, Tsai said she hoped they were not being too hasty in formulating policies.

”While the administration should formulate long-term, sustainable policies, the public sometimes has the impression that they are formed for election reasons,” she said. “As an opposition party, we must point this out and remind them of the possible consequences.”

Former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said during the committee meeting that Ma owed the public an apology if his administration borrowed money to fund its economic stimulus plan.

The plan will worsen inflation and the recent hikes in fuel prices have only exacerbated the situation, he said.

Hsieh said it made sense for the administration to adopt the DPP’s proposal to refund money to taxpayers and that if the government did not use the money wisely, the jobless rate would likely jump to 4.5 percent in September.

Hsieh said Ma’s declining approval ratings indicated that the public was disappointed and felt cheated because Ma had failed to deliver on his election promises.

Farmers in the south were most dissatisfied with Ma because they bore the brunt of inflation and they had hoped the change of government would improve the economy and their living standards, Hsieh said.

”But it has taken no time for them to realize that things have turned out to be exactly the opposite,” he said. “Ma should value those who have high expectations of him.”

He said civil servants, long regarded as strong supporters of KMT, might be the next group to backlash if he failed to do so.

Hsieh made the remarks in response to a media inquiry about a poll made public by the DPP yesterday.

Of more than 1,000 Chiayi residents surveyed in the poll, 53 percent said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with Ma’s performance, while only 34 percent said they were satisfied.
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