The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday demanded that the Ministry of Labor explain why the Labor Fund had a deficit of NT$122.6 billion (US$3.98 billion) in October last year, which it said would cause the Labor Insurance Fund to go bankrupt a year earlier than expected.
The Labor Fund is an umbrella term used to describe seven funds managed by the government to pay the pensions of ordinary workers and compensation for occupational hazards under the Labor Insurance system, among other things.
Apparently confusing the Labor Fund with the Labor Insurance Fund, KMT lawmakers yesterday held a news conference to chastise the government for the deficit.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The deficit drove the fund’s net growth from 2.87 percent in September last year to minus-0.47 percent, KMT caucus secretary-general William Tseng (曾明宗) said, citing this as the reason that the ministry yesterday brought forward the estimated date that the Labor Insurance Fund would go bankrupt from 2027 to 2026.
The deficit was because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration had used the Labor Insurance Fund to boost listed companies’ showing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Tseng said.
The DPP used taxpayers’ money to shore up the stock market, to avoid stockholders’ ire, which would hurt its approval ratings, KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said.
They asked ministry officials to give a report on the deficit and urged the Control Yuan to launch an investigation into the matter.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka yesterday rejected the KMT’s accusations, saying that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration had never intervened in the stock market by drawing from the National Security Fund or the “four major funds”: the Labor Insurance Fund, Labor Pension Fund, Public Service Pension Fund and Postal Savings Fund.
The Labor Fund ran up a deficit of NT$72 billion last year, but has generated revenue of NT$95 billion so far this year, she said, adding that the sum of all seven funds is currently NT$4.2 trillion.
A proposed bill on labor insurance pension reform has been delivered to the legislature for review, and if it is not passed this year, the government would allocate NT$20 billion to subsidize the Labor Insurance Fund, which now sits at NT$680 billion, she said.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Funds said the deficit recorded in October last year was due to “drastic fluctuations” in the international stock market caused by events, including the US-China trade dispute, calls for a “hard” Brexit and sluggish economy growth in the eurozone.
Additional reporting by CNA
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