Opposition parties today plan to push for passage of their proposed amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) to better support outlying islands, after voicing dissatisfaction with the Executive Yuan’s version of draft amendments that was released yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed amendments to Article 16-1 of the bill and are calling on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to respect the rights of Taiwan’s outlying islands when drafting fiscal allocation laws.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved its version of draft amendments that would raise funds for local governments to a record high of NT$1.2 trillion (US$38.34 billion) next year.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
The Cabinet’s version of the draft would increase the total amount of centrally allocated tax revenue, general subsidies and project-based subsidies.
The Executive Yuan has drafted a version that “tramples on public opinion” and is engaging in “unconstitutional and chaotic government,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday.
The draft completely deviates from the legislature’s original intent in amending the law: to fix severe inequities in fiscal distribution, the TPP caucus said yesterday in a statement.
The proposal is “a major regression for democracy” and “shameful,” it added.
Also up for discussion in today’s plenary session are amendments to Article 23 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法), also proposed by the opposition.
Article 23 states that the referendum day would be the fourth Saturday of August every other year and shall be nominated a public holiday.
Referendums used to be held along with national elections until the act was amended in 2017 to lower the threshold for initiating and passing referendums.
The TPP seeks to amend the act to bind referendums to national elections with the aim of garnering more votes in referendums, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said in August.
Today’s session would also discuss amendments to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) and portions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法).
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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