Amid criticism over a surprise policy flip-flop on the civil service payment system that would have seen the government save NT$383 million (US$12.73 million) a year in interest payments, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chuyn (孫立群) yesterday said it was his “fault” for not knowing that Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had called off the proposal to change the system.
Sun’s acceptance of responsibility for the policy U-turn did not stop criticism that the government had put the brakes on the proposal to avoid upsetting the affected group — civil servants, public school teachers and military personnel, who are traditionally regarded as pan-blue supporters — in the run-up to the seven-in-one elections on Nov. 29.
While pensions are supposed to be paid out on a monthly basis, under the current system, civil service retirees receive theirs twice a year — in January and July. The proposal would have changed the payment interval to a quarterly basis, with payments being given out in January, April, July and October starting next year.
However, the Executive Yuan sent a text message to reporters at 9:52pm on Wednesday saying that the payment system is to remain unchanged.
It came hours after Sun confirmed a report in the Chinese-language United Daily Evening News on Wednesday that the system was to be changed.
Sun apologized again at a press conference yesterday, saying he did not know that the proposed change was overruled at a meeting presided over by Jiang at about the same time he was talking to reporters.
“It’s all my fault,” Sun said, dismissing speculation that Jiang scrapped the proposal amid concern that it would displease traditional supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Jiang decided that the payment system should stay the same “because tax collections are expected to increase as the economy continues its recovery trend,” thus making it less urgent to carry out the reform at the moment, Sun added.
On Wednesday afternoon, Sun told reporters that the proposal to change the payment interval was made on March 28 by an Executive Yuan task force charged with fiscal reform.
The task force also decided that pensions should be paid out every month starting in 2017 to reduce interest costs by an estimated NT$640 million per year, he said.
Paying out pensions at shorter intervals enables the government to pay less in interest on loans it takes out to cover the retirement benefits and to gain more interest earnings, Sun said.
The policy U-turn drew mixed reactions from lawmakers.
“When the government knows that there are people opposed to the proposed policy and decides not to proceed with the plan... I would say it is a positive response to public opinion,” KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said.
Lin said that the proposed change was wrong because increasing the payment interval would mean elderly retirees would have to make more trips to collect their pensions, which can be tiring, he said.
“It would only inconvenience them,” he added.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that the flip-flop again proved that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was incapable of advancing reforms when it comes to preferential treatment extended to retired and current public servants, public school teachers and military personnel, despite the burden it imposes on the nation’s finances and the social injustice.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan