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
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS