The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus has outlined plans to form four task forces focusing on proposed constitutional reforms; the one fixed day off, one flexible rest day workweek policy; tax reform; and energy policy.
The caucus on Friday called an internal meeting, during which it tapped KMT legislators Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), William Tseng (曾銘宗) and Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) to devise strategies on constitutional reform, the workweek policy, tax reform and energy policy respectively.
Calling the appointments “restructuring” within the caucus, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said it created the task forces based on the success of a similar model it employed while monitoring the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The four units are expected to bolster arguments put forward by the KMT caucus when it scrutinizes the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) governance, Lin said, adding that the National Policy Foundation — the KMT’s think tank — would also help.
The units will help the caucus reach the broadest consensus, thus helping it put forward consistent arguments when monitoring the ruling party, he added.
The caucus is to allow each member to join two of the task forces, which will operate continually, so that the groups can make swift decisions on whether to formulate bills, rather than call a caucus-wide meeting when a major issue surfaces, he said.
Meetings will be regularly held by the task forces and will be “topic-oriented,” Lin said, adding that aside from bills amending the workweek policy — which are to include versions drafted by individual KMT lawmakers — the caucus is to put forward arguments against policies formed by the DPP.
Tseng said that his task force will meet on Wednesday to discuss work on the caucus’ tax reform bill.
The caucus is inclined to keep the corporate income tax at 17 percent rather than the 20 percent proposed by the Executive Yuan, since small and medium-sized enterprises have not made large profits in recent years, a situation that is aggravated by increased personnel costs due to the revised workweek policy, he said.
As about 800,000 students have taken out loans for their tuition, Tseng said that the caucus hopes to introduce a special deduction of NT$20,000 for people filing taxes within five years of their graduation.
It also hopes to raise the special deduction for parents with children in preschool from NT$20,000 to NT$50,000 to lessen their financial burden, Tseng said.
Amending the Constitution is a major challenge for which every political party has its own opinion, Johnny Chiang said.
Given the strict rules on passing a constitutional amendment, it is unlikely that the Constitution will be changed just because of the beliefs of a handful of lawmakers, he said.
While lawmakers can project their view on the nation’s international standing or the government system by proposing constitutional amendment bills, the task of amending the Constitution will ultimately fall into the hands of the public, since a referendum is needed before a bill is passed, he said.
He urged the DPP administration to organize national policy forums or public hearings so that members of all political parties can engage in discussions about proposed constitutional reforms.
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