Continued government subsidies are the “only way” to stabilize the Labor Insurance Fund in the absence of a consensus over how to proceed with the next stage of pension reform, Deputy Minister of Labor Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said on Wednesday.
Lee made the remarks during a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗), accusing the Ministry of Labor of inaction, asked when it would put forth plans for Labor Insurance Fund reform.
Lee denied that the ministry had delayed the proposed reform, saying that employers, workers and experts disagree over how to proceed.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The issue must be approached with caution, as it involves 10 million workers and 600,000 employers, but so far, “the parties involved are still a long way from a consensus,” Lee said.
At present, the only solution that employers and workers find acceptable to stabilize the fund is through continued government subsidies, Lee said.
In a written report submitted on Wednesday by the ministry to the legislative committee, it said that Taiwan’s low birthrate and aging population have put a strain on the fund.
Since 2020, the Cabinet has injected NT$147 billion (US$4.78 billion) to stabilize the fund, and earmarked an unprecedented NT$100 billion in subsidies for the fund for next fiscal year, the report said.
The ministry has previously proposed making “minor, but necessary” adjustments to the Labor Insurance Fund system to ensure its sustainability, which it hopes to review every five years.
Since its establishment in 1995 to February this year, the fund’s cumulative profit had reached NT$527.2 billion, with an average rate of return of 4.36 percent over the past 10 years, ministry data showed.
Despite concerns raised in some quarters over the fund’s sustainability, the ministry assured the public that its operations remain stable.
The fund totaled NT$753.4 billion at the end of last year, data released by the ministry in March showed.
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