The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday blocked a government-sponsored amendment to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) that would have cut the 0.3 percent stock transaction tax in half to boost the stock market.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus planned to get the bill passed yesterday after placing it on the agenda for a second reading last Friday, even though it hadn’t received a preliminary review from the legislative committee.
But the DPP caucus proposed a motion that would refer the bill to the legislature’s Finance Committee for preliminary review — a regular review process that bills are supposed to go through — meaning the bill will have its second reading next month at the earliest.
The legislative session passed an amendment to the Gender Equality in Employment Law (性別工作平等法), raising the punishment for employers in violation of regulations on adopting precautionary measures against sexual harassment.
Fines were increased from between NT$10,000 and NT$100,000 to NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.
An amendment to the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) requiring the government to set up disabled-friendly facilities in voting stations was also passed.
The legislature passed the Organic Act of Taiwan Financial Holdings Co, Ltd (台灣金融控股有限公司條例) to give legal status to the state-owned corporation.
The act states that the amount of the corporation’s government-owned capital shall be no less than 90 percent of its registered capital, while the number of executives sitting on its 13-to-15-member board who are foreigners or hold dual nationality shall not exceed two.
Meanwhile, the legislature yesterday scheduled a review session for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nominee for president of the Examination Yuan, John Kuan (關中), and the nominee for vice president of the Control Yuan, Chen Jinn-lih (陳進利), for next Friday.
The legislature also passed an amendment to the Statute Regulating Firearms, Ammunition, Knives and Other Deadly Weapons (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) that means people who illegally obtain such weapons will have their punishment increased by up to one half.
Under current regulations, people possessing such weapons without permission can recieve the death penalty, a life sentence or a seven-year sentence and a fine of up to NT$30 million (US$1 million).
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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