Concerned that efforts to stimulate the economy will only increase the national debt, the Alliance for Fair Tax Reform (AFTR) created a “human national debt clock” on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office yesterday.
Wearing purple T-shirts with numbers written on their backs, AFTR members lined up at the intersection of Ketagalan Boulevard and Gongyuan Road, together spelling out “13,800,000,000,000” — or NT$13.8 trillion (US$390 billion).
“This number represents Taiwan’s actual national debt — on average, each one of the country’s 23 million citizens has to shoulder about NT$600,000 of it,” spokesman Chien Hsi-chieh told reporters.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
While figures released by the Ministry of Finance earlier this month showed the current national debt to be NT$4.3 billion, AFTR member Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said that the number was inaccurate as many “hidden debts” were not accounted for in the official figure.
“The government should deal with our national debt honestly. They need to stop tax reforms that benefit large corporations and refrain from making policies that will only make the situation worse,” Chien said. “We don’t want our children and grandchildren to be born into debt.”
Alliance members said they were concerned that the government’s policy direction would make the situation worse.
Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office, the government has increased the national debt with several projects, including plans to expand domestic consumption and the i-Taiwan construction projects. The recent consumer vouchers policy — which will require another NT$80 billion in public debt — is only the latest addition, Son said.
“With the NT$400 billion ‘economic stimulation’ program on the way, the Ma government has already added more than NT$726 billion to our national debt,” he said.
The AFTR urged the government to hang a real national debt clock outside the Presidential Office, “so that every person can see how seriously we’re in debt,” a press statement said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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