The legislature’s Transportation Committee was forced to adjourn its meeting until Thursday after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) protested the committee’s decision to allow the Labor Pension Fund to invest in the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC).
Lin’s protest came shortly before National Communications Commission Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) was about to address the committee on plans to ease congestion on the nation’s mobile networks.
Before Shyr’s briefing began, the committee was supposed to confirm the minutes of its previous meeting on Thursday last week, during which it approved the THSRC’s financial restructuring plan.
However, Lin said that the plan would allow the Labor Pension Fund, the CTCI Foundation and the China Aviation Development Foundation to buy shares valued at NT$5.8 billion (US$187.5 million) and so, given the pension fund’s involvement, the plan also should also be reviewed by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
The money in the pension fund belongs to the workers who have contributed to it, not the government, she said.
The Transportation Committee had contradicted the principle of independence in the management and use of the fund by approving the fund’s investment the debt-ridden THSRC and ordering the government to maintain a set percentage of shares it holds in the company at all times, Lin said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), who was presiding over the meeting, said the committee had fulfilled necessary procedures in passing the resolution, adding that the details of the investment could be discussed further in a sitting of the full legislature.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) accused the DPP of being inconsistent on the THSRC’s financial restructuring.
“It [the DPP] first said that extending the THSRC’s concession period was the motive behind the government’s idea of allowing new investors to buy the company’s shares. Now it is saying that the Labor Pension Fund would suffer if it invests in the company,” she said.
As the dispute between Lin and other lawmakers intensified, Yang said that the committee would reconvene on Thursday.
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