Premier Cho Jung-tai (長卓榮) yesterday reached an agreement with opposition parties to provide more compensation to indigenous people for lost logging revenue, hopefully breaking a stalemate in the review of next year’s government budget.
The fiscal budget has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party voted to reject it six times in past months.
To break the impasse, Cho invited delegations from all three parties for a sit-down meeting at the Executive Yuan that was also attended by key Cabinet officials, including Vice Premier Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君), Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chen Shu-tzu (陳淑姿), Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) and Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Ljaucu Zingrur.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Photography Association via CNA
Talks appeared to have gone smoothly, as the parties reached an agreement and ended the meeting shortly after 4pm yesterday.
Caucus representatives and their deputies signed an agreement that was shown to reporters outside the Executive Yuan building, with lawmakers planning to schedule a review of the central government budget at today’s Procedure Committee meeting.
Cho agreed to raise compensation for indigenous people who refrain from logging on their lands from NT$30,000 per hectare to NT$60,000 per hectare annually (US$931 to US$1,861).
Officials said an additional budget of NT$4.2 billion would be needed for the plan.
The agreement states that all sides have agreed to complete the procedure “in accordance with amended provisions of the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act (原住民保留地禁伐補償實施辦法),” and to allocate government funds for the increased compensation.
The act was amended by opposition lawmakers in June to require higher compensation, a move opposed by the government, which said that Article 70 of the Constitution prohibits the legislature from proposing increases to expenditures planned by the Executive Yuan.
The additional budget allocation conforms to Article 91 of the Budget Act (預算法) and Article 5 of the Fiscal Discipline Act (財政紀律法), it said.
On the other two issues of contention, the agreement said that all parties agreed to the Cabinet’s proposal to adjust the “floating point value” in the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme to NT$0.95 by June 30 next year, which is used to calculate the reimbursement rate to healthcare facilities for medical services.
The Cabinet also agreed to report to the Legislative Yuan by the end of the year on adjusting measures to increase the government’s purchase price for grain.
Opposition parties have demanded a price increase of NT$5 per kilogram to benefit farmers, saying that the price has not been raised for 13 years.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that he and his delegation brought goodwill to the negotiations.
By law, the Cabinet is responsible for proposing the budget and the Legislative Yuan must consult with the Cabinet in order to request any substantial increases.
“All parties came here with an open mind and positive attitude for today’s negotiation, to reach an agreement with the Cabinet. It is good to have mutual respect from all sides and agree on issues that also conform to the Constitution, Budget Act and others,” Ker said.
“It is unwise to impede next year’s national budget due to disputes on several smaller issues,” he said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS