Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report.
The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government.
In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing Ministry of National Defense data.
In 2023 and last year, the number rose to 1,104 and 1,072 respectively, with compensation of NT$244.72 million and NT$259.79 million, it said.
As of June, 430 people had filed for early discharge from the military this year, a 90 percent increase compared with the same period in 2021, it said.
Retired Air Force lieutenant general Chang Yan-ting (張延廷) on Wednesday told reporters that the figures were alarming and showed that career soldiers are leaving due to immense workload pressure.
“The ministry must reform military workloads instead of focusing on weapons purchases,” Chang said.
Blogger Drifting Island (飄浪島嶼) said that the spike in early discharges highlights understaffing concerns.
“The military must isolate the reason for each discharge to determine whether it was due to dissatisfaction over wages or benefits, management, training, or, in what would be the worst-case scenario, because volunteers are afraid that war would break out,” the blogger said.
The dangers posed by the trend of early retirements should be addressed, as national defense has never relied on obtaining new weapon systems, but does rely on the morale of its fighting forces, the blogger added.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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