The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed an amendment to the farmers’ pension statute that would raise monthly payments for elderly farmers from the current NT$6,000 to NT$7,000 starting next year.
The pension will also be adjusted every four years based on changes in the consumer price index, according to the amendment.
The amendment includes a clause disqualifying wealthy farmers from the pension program starting on Jan. 1, 2013.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The clause targets those whose income from non-agricultural sources exceeds NT$500,000 (US$16,578) per year or who own non-farm property worth more than NT$5 million.
This excludes residential property worth less than NT$4 million in which farmers are living. Farmers who are already covered by the program before that date will not be affected.
As private residences are not counted in the property valuation, the clause would affect only several hundred people, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said.
The amendment was voted through the legislature with backing from the KMT majority.
Although the Democratic Progressive Party was in favor of -increasing the farmers’ pension, it also said that no farmers should be excluded from the program based on their wealth or lack thereof.
Several KMT legislators from agricultural regions — such as Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) from Chiayi County, Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) from Greater Kaohsiung and Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡) from Yunlin County — also opposed the exclusion clause.
In the voting process, the legislators held up a banner that read, “Against depriving people of their rights” to voice their protest.
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世), head of the KMT’s policy committee, said the clause was introduced in line with the principles of fairness and justice, adding that a similar exclusion clauses applies to welfare programs for the disadvantaged.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS