The pan-purple alliance, a private group dedicated to promoting fair and just social welfare services and speaking for the underprivileged, unveiled a list of lawmakers yesterday who it claims support tax cuts for the rich.
Chien Hsi-chieh, convener of the alliance, unveiled the list at a news conference yesterday that was dubbed "Beware! Look Who Is Undermining Our National Finances."
Over the past 10 years, Chien said, the nation's financial status has continued to worsen, with the ratio of tax revenues to GDP declining from 18.6 percent to 12.3 percent. As tax revenues have decreased by NT$700 billion over the past decade, Chien said, the government has had to sell land holdings and stocks, as well as float state bonds, to make ends meet.
Ignoring the government's financial straits, the Legislative Yuan has passed revisions to three major bills that "would allow business corporations and wealthy families to evade taxes with legal protection," Chien said.
The three bills refer to packages of revisions to the statute on promoting industrial upgrading, the statute on land value increment tax and the inheritance and gift tax law.
In the run-up to the Dec. 11 legislative elections, Chien said, candidates of different political stripes are gearing up to canvass votes. However, he said, few candidates have paid attention to issues related to people's livelihoods, such as government finances and welfare services for the underprivileged.
Chien said the pan-purple alliance has consequently decided to unveil the list of legislators who initiated the above-mentioned three bills and are seeking re-election in the upcoming vote.
The lawmakers come from across the political spectrum, Chien said, adding that the move should serve as a warning to those legislators.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
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A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today said that two of its patrol vessels have docked at Palau's Malakal Harbor as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with the Palauan president. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi (嘉義) and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu (澎湖), set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived at Malakal Harbor yesterday, the CGA's Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marked the second time the CGA has dispatched a "Friendship Fleet" to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien (花蓮)
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