Subsidies for senior citizens may be postponed from its scheduled July 1 launch date due to potential opposition in the Legislative Yuan, Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅) said yesterday.
"The postponement is because only NT$6.5 billion of the `secondary reserve' is left, and tapping into the fund would require further legal procedures since legislators still have mixed views on this issue," Chang told the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
Chang said that if the plan is delayed, the government would reimburse seniors once the program is started.
The "secondary reserve" (
Meanwhile, Chang said that the "333" measure would exclude senior citizens already receiving other government subsidies and should only be awarded based on need, in an effort to avoid abuse of the fund.
Chang said the plan should still be studied in more detail by the Cabinet.
The measure is part of the "333 family welfare program" (
The two other measures in the program are free medical insurance for children under 3 and a 3 percent mortgage interest rate for young, first-time homebuyers.
Concerning the low interest rate loan proposal, Chang said the measure would be restricted to citizens between 20 and 40 years old. Within a year, an estimated 10,000 households would be able to benefit from the 3 percent interest rate for a period of seven years.
The measure is expected to be implemented on Jan. 1, Chang said.
The senior citizens' pension has been given priority by the new government and was set to take effect on July 1.
As a result, the plan will involve adjusting the central government budget for this fiscal year, which is to last until Dec. 31 this year.
The Ministry of Finance (
These include adjusting the existing budget allocations for social welfare spending, drawing money from the government reserve fund -- the so-called "secondary reserve" -- and making a new budget proposal.
Drawing on the reserve fund has been considered by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS,
Most legislators, however, are strongly against this solution, arguing that the proposal is unlawful and has been raised "for convenience's sake."
Legislators warned that the estimated NT$15.3 billion required for the subsidy annually may affect government funding available for all other welfare programs or economic development projects, which is limited.
"The distribution of social welfare subsidies should be evaluated based on the actual availability of funding," said KMT legislator Eric Chu (
"As the new government has already promised a larger-scale national annuity plan within four years, the distribution of subsidies for senior citizens now might affect the planned implementation of the regular distribution scheme for the elderly," KMT legislator Chen Hung-chi (
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort