Cabinet financial officials yesterday revealed that the Executive Yuan would consider making adjustments to the distribution principle behind the "Redistribution Tax" (中央統籌分配款), which would reduce the current 47 percent given to the two Special Municipality Governments -- Taipei and Kaohsiung -- to either 43 or 41 percent, and at the same time raise the percentage for county governments.
"There are three proposals for adjusting the percentage of the `Redistribution Tax' revenue. Proposal A is to maintain the current system, B is to reduce it to 43 and C is to further lower it to 41," a Finance Ministry official said.
However, Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (
However, Hsieh did not make it clear to reporters just how he planned to stand up to the Executive Yuan in this regard.
The contest between local governments for the "Redistribution Tax," which is about NT$150 billion per year, has been going on for the past two years. Twenty three county chiefs -- 21 from Taiwan and two from Fujian Province -- have united together to protest that the two Special Municipality governments should not enjoy so much financing from the central government.
"We [the governments of the 23 counties] face severe financial difficulties," said Su Chen-chang (蘇貞昌), Taipei County commissioner. "The new cabinet should equally redistribute the central government's financial resources to all local administrations."
Su stressed that none of the commissioners could tolerate any longer that the development of their counties was falling behind the two Special Municipality Cities simply because they grabbed the largest share of the nation's money.
"Many factories locate in my county but the companies that own the factories register in Taipei city," Su said. "It means that our residents are landed with the pollution that is produced while Taipei city residents benefit from that tax revenues those companies generate."
On the other hand, Taipei City mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
On May 24, while receiving the mayors of the two Special Municipality Cities and the governors of Taiwan and Fujian Provincial governments at the Presidential Office, President Chen agreed with the new mayors that the existing system of giving 47 percent of local tax revenues to the two municipal cities would be maintained.
In addition, Chen said that the relationship between central and local government is that of a partnership rather than a hierarchical one, and promised to expedite development projects in the regions.
Ma has repeatedly appealed to the central government's financial department not to go back on the President's promises to the public.
Hsieh echoed Ma yesterday saying that he could understand the reason why the 23 county chiefs felt so aggrieved against the central government, but Kaohsiung city did not get a fair financial deal either.
"The amount Kaohsiung city receives is only one third that of Taipei city," Hsieh said. "Those 23 county chiefs should not take aim at us."
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