The legislature yesterday passed the general budget proposal for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-profit funds, a move that would normally signify a step forward, had the budget not been last year’s, making its review and approval a year late.
After cross-party negotiations, the long-delayed budget was finally passed, but with a cut of more than NT$34 billion (US$1.06 billion), with Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) budget taking the biggest hit of minus-NT$29 billion.
At the floor meeting convened to discuss the proposal, the legislature also passed a resolution concerning the SOEs’ budget that requires the businesses to “mete out employee benefits rationally and according to performance appraisals starting in 2016.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The resolution is meant to address longstanding criticism that the bonuses awarded to employees at such enterprises are disproportionate to the losses the firms generate.
Lawmakers also voted for a complementary motion requiring that from this year, information on the backgrounds, attendance records and payment received by SOE executives commissioned by the government must be provided to the legislature every year.
Although the budget proposal and adjoining resolutions were passed, four motions related to the SOEs and funds were not.
The four failed motions were proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses, and rejected by the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
They were: A DPP motion to require the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taipower to compile a report on the plan to halt the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and on the prohibition on the extension of the life span of the running nuclear power plants; to scrap the building funds for a controversial public housing project in Linkou District (林口), also in New Taipei; to eliminate the Veterans Affairs Council’s funds in relation to Shin Hsiung Natural Gas Inc, in which the council is a major shareholder; and a motion to cut the National Development Fund over its plan to construct a NT$800 million National Development Building.
Separately, the DPP held a press conference yesterday at which it accused the Veterans Affairs Council of “intending to benefit big corporations” with its plan to sell its shares in the gas company.
Since Shin Hsiung is currently the most profitable enterprise that the council has invested in, the bid to sell the shares is nonsensical, the DPP said.
The DPP said it “strongly suspects” that the council is seeking to shift the shares to benefit big corporations “because the KMT senses that the end of its rule is imminent.”
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