The Legislative Yuan’s plenary session was brought to a standstill yesterday, as lawmakers remained unable to reach a consensus on a draft act on promoting innovative industries.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus resorted to a filibuster “relay,” with each member of the caucus registering to comment on every one of the 74 articles of the proposal on the legislative floor in a bid to stall the proposal from being put to vote.
DPP legislators then took over the speaker’s podium after DPP Policy Research Committee head Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) finished his remarks, holding up a banner that read: “The draft act on promoting innovative industries benefits corporations while sacrificing small and medium-size companies.”
The DPP accused the government of trying to give corporations tax breaks while the general public still had to pay higher tax rates.
The controversial bill initiated by the Executive Yuan, which topped yesterday’s agenda, proposes to maintain the business income tax rate for corporations that establish an operation headquarters in Taiwan at 20 percent, while providing tax breaks for innovation and income from investments.
The DPP proposed on Friday last week to lower the business income tax rate to 17.5 percent and to allow the rate to apply to all kinds of businesses.
The government voiced opposition to the DPP’s proposal, saying state coffers would lose NT$40.3 billion (US$1.2 billion) in revenue every year.
Legislators agreed in the last legislative session to give priority to the draft act in the current session.
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