The Executive Yuan yesterday approved an additional NT$100 billion (US$3.08 billion) for the fiscal 2024 budget to subsidize Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) for sustaining severe losses in complying with government policies.
The proposal has been forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for ratification.
Without subsidies or increasing prices, Taipower would stand to lose NT$210 billion this year, Taipower vice president Wang Jenn-yeong (王振勇) said.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, the rate hike that went into effect on April 1, the Executive Yuan’s subsidy and falling fuel prices mean the company can reduce its losses to just NT$10 billion, Wang added.
The price adjustment saw a 3 to 5 percent increase for most households and an increase of up to 25 percent for consumers of 500 gigawatt-hours or more per month.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said that if the additional funding is approved, fiscal 2024 would see total expenditure of NT$2.95 trillion, while expected income stands at NT$2.72 trillion.
The government would have to pay NT$11.5 billion in debt in addition to the NT$22.67 billion deficit for a NT$34.17 billion loss, the DGBAS said.
The government plans to raise NT$25.71 billion by issuing bonds and also dip into the fiscal 2022 surplus to compensate for the deficit, it added.
In response to the legislature earlier this week passing a non-binding motion to freeze electricity prices, Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Tzu-lun (林子倫) quoted Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) as saying that the legislative and executive branches should observe their respective boundaries.
Chen said the price hike resulted from discussions observing Article 49 of the Electricity Act (電業法) and the government is legally bound to implement the results of such talks.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan yesterday also approved a bill that would offer a NT$75,000 Lunar New Year bonus for borough and village wardens.
The elected positions currently do not receive a salary or annual bonus, but are offered a NT$50,000 monthly subsidy from their governing municipality.
The amendment to the Regulations on Allowances for Elected Representatives and Subsidies for Borough and Village Wardens (地方民意代表費用支給及村里長事務補助費補助條例) would mean an additional NT$580 million allocated for the elected offices, the Ministry of the Interior said.
In addition, the amendment would raise subsidies for city and county councilors to hire assistants to NT$300,000 from NT$240,000 per month for city councilors and to NT$140,000 from NT$80,000 per month for county councilors.
It would also limit the number of assistants councilors can hire, with city councilors having at most seven and county councilors having at most three.
Monthly service payouts to village and borough wardens in indigenous areas would also be raised to NT$55,000 from NT$50,000.
Speaking to legislators in the morning, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said there were no political or personal considerations to the amendments.
Since the duties of village and borough wardens have changed to approaching a full-time job and opinions differed greatly on the compensation, the Executive Yuan decided that the Lunar New Year bonus was the most “balanced” method.
Lin emphasized that the bonus counts as a “gratuity,” not a salary.
If the amendment clears all legislative hurdles, it could be distributed next year, he said.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsi
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS