The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should implement its planned pension cuts for private-sector workers concurrently with those for retired military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers to ensure that pension reforms are conducted in an equitable manner, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said yesterday.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) last month said that no timetable had been set for pension cuts in the private sector.
DPP lawmakers speaking on condition of anonymity have conceded that with the year-end elections, pushing through private-sector pension cuts would do the party a disservice and could cause its “downfall,” KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
If so, the DPP is pursuing “biased” pension reforms by “going after the easy targets,” Lin said.
The Cabinet has said that pension reforms for the three groups of retired public employees will take effect on July 1.
The KMT would support pension reforms if cuts were implemented simultaneously for retired military personnel, public servants, public-school teachers and private-sector workers, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
He called on the DPP to honor the conclusion reached at a meeting of the Presidential Office’s Pension Reform Committee in January last year that all pension reforms would be implemented at the same time.
KMT lawmakers Alex Fai (費鴻泰) and Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) urged the DPP to weigh its priorities when allocating budgets before introducing pension cuts.
Pension cuts for civil servants and public-school teachers — which were approved by the legislature in June last year — are expected to save the government between NT$20 billion and NT$30 billion (US$686 million and US$1.03 billion) each year, Fai said.
If the DPP would scrap plans to open the new coal-fired Shenao Power Plant, stop maintaining the shuttered Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and not carry out the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, it would save the nation NT$800 billion, enough to keep the pension system afloat for several decades until the government comes up with a better reform plan, they said.
More than a year has passed since Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-yi (林萬億) promised the “800 Heroes” group of military veterans that the government would communicate and coordinate with them before proposing pension cuts for veterans, KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
Lin has not delivered on his promise, even though the Cabinet could submit its draft bill on the pension cuts for veterans to the legislature for review any moment, Lai said.
The DPP clearly devised the pension reforms to benefit the party ahead of the elections, but they are no less than a “persecution” of veterans, civil servants and public-school teachers, he said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over