The government is to phase out the 18 percent preferential savings rate for retired public-sector employees over a period of six years, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
In a radio interview, Chen said that the government plans to lower the 18 percent interest rate in stages over six years.
For people taking monthly retirement payments, the rate will be adjusted to 9 percent in the first two years after retirement, then to 6 percent in years three and four and 3 percent in years five and six. There would be no preferential interest rate after that, he said.
Photo: courtesy of Super FM98.5
However, to care for less-well-off retirees, the 18 percent preferential rate would remain for people below a salary floor, which is to be set at either NT$25,000 or NT$32,000 (US$791 or US$1,013) a month, pending further discussions, he said.
Pensioners who take a lump sum would be entitled to higher interest rates, Chen said, without specifying the rate.
The 18 percent preferential interest rate for retired military officials, civil servants and public-school teachers was introduced in 1960 when the average income for the three professions was lower than most other careers.
The government originally planned to scrap the preferential rate, but has decided to take a milder approach, Chen said.
“A pension [fund] is like a feeble goose, which has to lay eggs larger than it can handle every day. There will be no more eggs when it cannot stand anymore and dies,” Chen said. “However, a healthy goose that only has to lay normal-sized eggs can continue [to survive] and give birth to goslings.”
Under the pension system, the pension of a person who begins work at 25 and retires at 55 is only enough to cover 10 years of pension payments, Chen said.
By the age of 65, the person would be receiving pension payments covered by others’ contributions, he said.
With a retirement age of 50, due to the nation’s average life expectancy, women can expect to receive pension payments for 33 years and men for 27 years.
To ensure a sustainable pension system, the retirement age needs to be set at 55 and the income replacement ratio lowered from 80 percent to 60 percent, with the pension contributions of employees and the government raised from 12 percent to 18 percent, Chen said.
Meanwhile, amid accusations that the government has not been transparent in its organization of a national conference on pension reform, which is to be held on Sunday at the Presidential Office Building, Chen said the Presidential Office is always “fair and honest.”
Calling on opponents of the government’s pension reform plans to express their opinions at the conference peacefully, Chen said opponents have mobilized protesters in a “warlike fashion,” which is inappropriate conduct in a democratic society.
Although invited to attend the conference, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the New Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union have yet to nominate representatives, Chen said, encouraging the parties to participate.
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
RSS