The summer lull in the partisan fighting over various policy issues will soon come to an end as lawmakers started signing up for the new session yesterday.
The TSU, the tiny ally of the DPP, demanded that Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (
Meanwhile, the KMT called on the Cabinet to voluntarily take back next year's budget, which it said is full of deceiving figures meant to hide the nation's financial troubles.
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHIAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Jumping on the bandwagon, the PFP vowed to give the administration a rough ride when the budgetary review begins later this month.
During a collective registration, legislators from the TSU said they oppose offshore banking unit (OBU) operations proposed by the finance ministry to help local investors conduct business in China.
"Oppose OBU! Down with Lee Yung-san," they chanted.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance indicated it is mulling introducing the OBU mechanism in line with a consensus reached by last year's Economic Development Advisory Conference.
But TSU legislative leader Su Ying-kwei (
"Such a practice, if allowed, would encourage investors to migrate to China and leave their debts in Taiwan," Su said.
Fellow TSU Legislator Liao Pen-yan (
Chen Chien-ming (
Because an executive order would suffice to carry out the OBU plan, the fledgling party threatened to sap the ministry's power through legal revisions, if necessary.
In addition, the 12-member caucus said it would continue pushing for a referendum law that allows the people to have the final say on major policy disputes, political and economic.
The KMT, on the other hand, accused the DPP administration of manipulating the figures when preparing next year's budget and urged the Cabinet to withdraw the plan on its own accord.
According to KMT Legislator Wang Chun-yu (
KMT Legislator Cheng Feng-shih (
"The government must quit playing Santa Claus at the [expense of the] nation's financial health," he said.
Recently, the Cabinet said it would extend the senior-citizen stipend to retired workers with money earmarked for the national pension program.
The KMT, though supportive of expanding the NT$3,000-per-month allowance to more groups, frowns on the proposal to borrow money from the national pension fund.
The PFP said it would play the bad cop during the budgetary review in light of the low efficiency with which the government executed last year's budget. PFP legislative leader Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) cited official statistics that show various government agencies failed to carry out their spending programs for last year.
She noted that during the fiscal period, the reserve capital for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was NT$38.5 billion.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Council of Agriculture trailed in second and third with NT$9.6 billion and NT$5.5 billion, respectively, the lawmaker said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS