The Executive Yuan and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus have their sights on clearing six major items through the legislature with the new legislative session to begin on Tuesday next week, officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.
The six items are: the general budget, the budget for state-run businesses for the current fiscal year, the special budget for the procurement of 66 F-16V jets, a proposal to abolish the Stamp Tax Act (印花稅法) and the nomination of five Central Election Commission members and the auditor-general, they said.
As the legislative elections are to be held on Jan. 11 next year and a substantial proportion of lawmakers will be campaigning, leaving them with less time to review proposals, Executive Yuan and caucus executives agreed to not list priority bills, the officials said.
Photo: CNA
However, two proposals concerning the US-China trade dispute that were to be discussed during the previous session might be reviewed, they said.
A proposed amendment to the Foreign Trade Act (貿易法) aims to prevent Chinese-made products shipped to the nation being labeled “Made in Taiwan” and a proposed amendment to the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法) would allow prosecutors to issue confidentiality orders for investigations that involve the operations of technology firms to help prevent their commercial secrets from being leaked.
The Executive Yuan attaches high importance to the general budget for the next fiscal year, as well as the budget for the operations of state-run businesses in the current fiscal year, which should have been approved two sessions ago, the officials said.
Of the six items, the proposal to repeal the Stamp Tax Act is expected to be the most contentious. While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has united 15 mayors and commissioners in administrative regions that it governs to oppose the proposal, other opposition lawmakers have said that they would not block the proposal, they said.
The budget for procuring the F-16Vs should not meet with opposition from the pan-blue camp and is expected to pass, they said.
The Executive Yuan has nominated Soochow University professor of political science Huang Hsiu-tuan (黃秀端), Deputy Minister of the Interior Chih Chang-yueh (邱昌嶽), National University of Kaohsiung professor of economics and financial law Evelyn Chen (陳越端), National Chengchi University associate professor of political science Lin Chao-chi (林超琦) and National Cheng Kung University associate professor of political science Meng Chih-cheng (蒙志成) to fill five posts that are to be vacated by retiring members, while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has nominated Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Deputy Minister Chen Ruei-min (陳瑞敏) for auditor-general.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS