Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on Thursday urged labor insurance reforms after the Cabinet announced a plan to inject NT$45 billion (US$1.42 billion) to bolster Taiwan’s insurance funds.
Labor pension funds had lost NT$320.4 billion as of last month, which suggests mismangement, KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) told a news conference at the legislature.
The Ministry of Labor should explain why the funds were used to stabilize the stock market earlier this year, a decision that likely contributed to the funds’ woes, he said, adding that the National Audit Office should investigate.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
If the government does not initiate pension reforms, NT$100 billion would be needed every year to shore up the funds, he said.
The labor retirement reserve fund’s yield loss is equivalent to a reduction of NT$17,000 from the account of the average pensioner, KMT deputy secretary-general Hsieh Yi-fong (謝衣?) said.
The new pension fund reported a deficit on only three other occasions — a loss of 6.05 percent in the 2008 recession, 3.94 percent in the 2011 European debt crisis and 0.09 percent in 2015, she said.
The Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Labor should act before December, she added.
“Do not lie by blaming the situation on falling stock prices,” Hsieh said, adding that the 6.28 percent yield loss experienced this year is higher than in 2008 and 2011.
Plummeting stock and bond prices have caused a NT$320.46 billion decline in the yield of the country’s labor pension funds, which have a combined value of NT$5.48 trillion as of August, the Bureau of Labor Funds wrote in a report on Monday.
A new labor retirement reserve fund valued at NT$3.51 trillion has taken a 6.2 percent loss in yields while the previous fund valued at NT$993.5 billion lost 7.44 percent in yields, it said.
The bureau said it would aim to better diversify investment portfolios and monitor financial headwinds more diligently.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching