Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday rejected a proposal that the central government should assume all debts incurred before the four special municipalities came into being.
Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) made the suggestion at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday. According to an official attending the meeting who wished to remain anonymous, Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) seconded Liu’s suggestion, followed by Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), who first raised the idea a few days ago.
Local finances have become a major concern after four special municipalities came into being on Dec. 25 last year.
The government plans to amend the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) and increase the budget allocated to the five municipalities from 43 percent to 61 percent.
Heads of other local governments, including Yunlin, Yilan and Chiayi counties, have expressed concern that their counties’ finances will suffer as a result of the bill.
Rejecting Liu’s proposal, the premier was quoted by Executive Yuan Spokesman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) as saying: “Fund shortages are not a problem unique to the five special municipalities, but a problem faced by governments at all levels.”
According to the same official, Lai asked for an additional grant from the central government, noting that Greater Tainan faced a shortage of up to NT$12 billion (US$409.4 million) in funds in the run-up to the Lunar New Year to cover expenses in project payments, year-end bonuses and salaries for government employees.
Lai also expressed dissatisfaction over the central government agreeing to cover the National Health Insurance premiums owed by Taipei City and the previous Kaohsiung City governments to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, according to the official. Lai demanded that the central government appropriate funds for the special municipalities to pay their shares of premiums accrued from the farmers’ insurance program.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) urged the central government to pay more attention to the financial health of local governments and establish a mechanism to encourage local governments to increase tax revenue.
Commenting on Liu’s suggestion that the central government should take over all debt prior to the merger, Hau said: “Local governments should not ask the central government to shoulder all of their financial burdens, but the central government should establish a mechanism to reward those local governments that come up with ways to increase city revenue without depending on subsidies from the central government.”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS