The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus is to allegedly push through the third reading of the NT$410 billion (US$14 billion) special act bill tomorrow, aiming to request an additional NT$230 billion be allocated for universal NT$10,000 cash handouts, raising the total budget to NT$640 billion.
The cabinet on April 24 approved a NT$410 billion special budget to enhance national security and boost economic resilience in response to US tariffs, aimed at ensuring job security, propping up industrial and agricultural sectors and protecting democracy.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Around NT$93 billion of the budget was allocated for “economic resilience” to support supply chain relocation and “dual-axis transformation,” to focus on digital and net-zero technologies, in light of US President Donald Trump’s proposed reciprocal tariffs.
It also included an NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and NT$150 billion for “whole-of-society defense resilience.”
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has allegedly decided that the party caucus would propose a bill that would include the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taipower and NT$150 billion for “whole-of-society defense resilience.”
Several KMT party members later denied there was such a decision.
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said Chu emphasized the party’s support for a universal cash handout while “leaving the rest for the party to decide.”
The party caucus has not yet discussed how to handle the NT$410 billion budget, he said.
The Executive Yuan said today that the cash handouts would push the government and public finances into crisis and could trigger inflation, urging the Legislative Yuan to carefully consider the proposal.
Although the opposition’s draft budget is welcomed, resources are currently focused on the aftermath of this week’s typhoon and preparing for the upcoming typhoon season, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said today, following a cabinet meeting.
Additionally, the Taipower subsidy is intended to offset Taipower’s mounting losses of NT$420 billion as of the end of last year, after it froze electricity rates for households and industries in line with government policy, she said.
President William Lai (賴清德) and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) have consulted with front-line industry experts who hope that stabilizing electricity prices would help to counter the effects of US reciprocal tariffs, Lee said.
The government is optimistic about its ongoing negotiation with the US, Lee added.
The two countries have been deepening trade ties under the principle of reciprocity to achieve trade balance, Lee said.
Following Typhoon Danas, the nation watched as Taipower employees worked tirelessly to repair infrastructure and restore connection, she said, adding she hopes that the opposition would help to support the company.
Not a single dollar would be passed by the Legislative Yuan tomorrow, and the KMT is not willing to budge on striking the NT$100-billion Taipower subsidy, KMT think tank Deputy Director Ling Tao (凌濤) later said today.
Only regulations concerning society, economy and defense are to be discussed tomorrow, he said, adding that legislators do not intend to discuss the special budget itself.
The KMT is instead standing with the public and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to ensure that Taiwan can counter the effects of US tariffs, Ling said.
Lai said that although the party supports the NT$150 billion defense budget, it believes it should be allocated from a special or supplementary budget.
Lai said he consulted with Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), who made no promises that Taipower would freeze electricity prices on receiving the subsidy, which is unacceptable and requires further deliberation on the budget.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) today said the KMT’s proposal was “excessive,” and questioned where the additional funding would come from.
The KMT is willing to “take on debt for cash handouts, just to save their recall campaigns,” she added.
Additional reporting from Shih Hsiao-kuang and CNA
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS