The legislature yesterday enacted a bill designed to create a social security system that will cover 3.5 million people who currently lack any pension benefits.
The National Pension Law (
They will be required to pay a monthly contribution based on a percentage of the national minimum wage. Contributions will be calculated on a graded scale ranging from 6.5 percent to 12 percent of minimum wage.
After retirement at the age of 65, contributors would receive a pension of up to NT$8,986 per month for the rest of their life, a figure that will be adjusted in line with changes in the consumer price index.
Given the current minimum wage of NT$17,280, a monthly contribution of 6.5 percent of the minimum wage would amount to NT$1,123, of which a citizen will pay 60 percent, or NT$674, per month, while the government will cover the remaining 40 percent.
After 40 years, the total amount contributed by the citizen would be NT$515,082, while the payout would amount to NT$1.83 million over 17 years, calculated on an average lifespan of 82 years.
Integration
The bill also calls for the integration of four existing monthly allowances -- the NT$3,000 allowance for senior citizens, NT$5,000 for elderly farmers, NT$3,000 for Aboriginal senior citizens and NT$6,000 for elderly members of low-income households.
After the implementation of the national pension program, which is to start on Oct. 1 next year, the four categories of allowances will be scrapped, although the benefits will remained unchanged.
The legislature yesterday also passed an amendment to the Temporary Statute Regarding the Welfare Pension of Senior Farmers (
The amendment was passed with immediate effect, and the increase will cost the government an additional NT$8.4 billion (US$255.9 million) per year.
Budget bills
Also passed were two long-delayed budget bills for the current fiscal year -- a NT$2.9 trillion budget for state-owned enterprises and a NT$1 trillion budget for governmental non-profit funds -- as well as the NT$75.8 billion special budget for public construction projects.
The special budget was part of the government's NT$500 billion investment plan for major public construction projects from 2004 to next year.
The government initially expected that the budget would increase the nation's economic growth by 0.62 percent and create 39,000 job opportunities per year.
Lawmakers also passed an amendment to the License Plate Tax Law (使用牌照稅法), reducing the license tax on motorcycles with an engine capacity of 250cc or larger and expanding the scope of license tax exemption in outlying islands from 1,800cc to 2,400cc.
Also see story:
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
RSS