The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus is expected to initiate several anti-tax-evasion and anti-nuclear amendment proposals in the provisional legislative session, despite being unable to ensure their passage, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.
“We are going to ask the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to clearly express its position on these issues. We will also demand that the Executive Yuan refrain from signing the cross-strait service trade agreement until the Legislative Yuan has comprehensively discussed it,” Ker said after the caucus meeting.
The DPP has listed 17 legislative proposals and four resolution proposals in order of priority in its agenda for the two-week extra session which begins tomorrow.
The KMT has set its sights on “only two things in the extra session: the passage of a national referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the establishment of representative offices for the Straits Exchange Foundation in China and for the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in Taiwan,” Ker said.
The DPP’s opposition to nuclear power has always been clear, which is why it has proposed to enact or amend what the party is referring to as the “three anti-nuclear bills,” which are legislation regarding the promotion of a nuclear-free homeland (非核家園推動法), the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Control Act (核子反應器設施管制法) and the Referendum Act (公投法), Ker said.
Tax evasion by large corporations is another serious issue the DPP is trying to tackle, as big businesses have been given unfair tax breaks, while “paper companies,” with headquarters in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, were exempt from taxes, he said.
The government has had trouble generating revenues and finding funds for infrastructure projects because, in general, corporations are paying a lot less tax than the average taxpayer, Ker said.
“A company with an annual profit of NT$40 billion [US$1.34 billion] not paying any tax is simply not right,” he said.
Other planned initiatives include an amendment to the Political Party Act (政黨法) and a resolution that requests the establishment of a committee that monitors cross-strait agreements.
Meanwhile, Ker said he would support reforming the mechanism for cross-party negotiations, a topic raised by lawmakers across party lines after the public condemned the nation’s political parties for their “late-night secret deals,” notably the decriminalization of imprisoned former lawmaker Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) on the last day of the previous legislative session.
DPP lawmakers Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) and Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), as well as several KMT lawmakers, said yesterday that promoting transparency in cross-party negotiations was crucial.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS