The Legislative Yuan passed the first reading of an amendment to the Act of Courtesy for Former Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例), which might bring about major cuts to payments.
The act stipulates a monthly stipend of NT$250,000 (US$8,300) and NT$180,000 to former presidents and vice presidents respectively for every month they were in office.
“We feel that slashing the courtesy funds for presidents and vice presidents to NT$80,000 per month is reasonable, given that this is not that much more than the maximum pension retirees would receive should pension reforms pass,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The plan is to peg the courtesy fund to expected payments once the Act Governing the Recompense for the Discharge of Special Political Appointees (政務人員退職撫卹條例) is amended, Tuan said.
Tuan said that former leaders should not feel that the payments would be too little, considering that the courtesy fund is not a pension and is based on how many years they held office.
The change was proposed by DPP Legislator Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), who said it would facilitate pension reform.
Political appointees, who are paid the most by far, would receive NT$76,200 at most, while the best rates for civil servants — 60 percent of double their base pay — would be NT$63,690, Liu said.
The motion to pass the first reading was lauded by DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津), who said that former presidents and vice presidents should not even be refunded for travel costs and setting up offices for public affairs.
They should seek to attend as few public events as possible, as they tend to “act up” when they have too much money to use, Yeh said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opposed the motion.
KMT Legislator Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) said that the payments were the nation’s way of thanking retired presidents for their hard work.
“We should not treat comments in passing conversations as law,” Yang said, apparently referring to comments by Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who on Jan. 20 said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) proposed that courtesy funds should be pegged to civil servant’s pensions.
The fund should not be slashed under any circumstances, KMT Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) said, adding that the proposed amendment showed a lack of understanding of the reason for the payments and would not save any money.
An outgoing president receives NT$8 million to fund an office, pay staff and miscellaneous fees, which drops by NT$1 million per year until the fifth year, should they serve two terms.
The vice president is paid at half those rates.
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