Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said yesterday that it has not been decided how to exclude the rich from a much--deliberated proposal to raise welfare pensions for senior farmers.
Chen said at a question-and-answer session at the legislature that the council is still considering whether to implement the exclusion based on income or real--estate value.
The proposal by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has proceeded to a second reading, is for an additional NT$1,000 (US$33) on top of the current pension of NT$6,000 a month for each farmer. The Executive Yuan’s version of the bill was reported to exclude rich farmers.
Legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties questioned Chen on the proposal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) said he was opposed to the exclusion, arguing that the rich already pay income and luxury taxes.
Civil service pay raises did not consider the government’s finances, so why should it be different when it comes to farmers’ pensions, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) asked.
“The national pension and veterans’ pensions, for example, both exclude the rich. [To exclude] based on income or real-estate value is still under consideration,” Chen said in response to the question.
He also cited a poll that showed 47 percent of farmers were in favor of an exclusion, compared with 33 percent against.
Chen said last week that a decision is expected within a month.
Three KMT lawmakers proposed in the session to lift senior farmers’ pensions from NT$6,000 to NT$8,000 a month. The proposal was later passed.
Former Department of Health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) accused both the KMT and the DPP of proposing the pension increase to attract votes in January’s elections.
“Where will the money come from? How can political parties only give promises, but not give money and increase the public debt?” he asked in an article he penned to Chinese-language media.
Yaung said the DPP, which has made a campaign ad on the issue, should explain how it would conjure up the NT$8.2 billion extra cost of the subsidy.
“Otherwise, it is an irresponsible party that has proposed an irresponsible act,” he said.
He also said the KMT was no better because it dared not tell the public the truth behind this election promise.
Lin Wan-yi (林萬億), a social work professor at National Taiwan University and a former DPP minister without portfolio, said that Taiwan’s agricultural problems, which include illegal seizures of farmland, imbalance of production and sales, and aging farmers, could not be solved by raising pensions.
He argued that senior farmers should be taken care of financially by a national pension for the elderly, which would be a more sustainable social welfare system.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires