Starting on Thursday next week and continuing into May, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to hold policy briefings around Taiwan to inform the public about its proposals, particularly its plan to issue a universal NT$10,000 tax rebate, the party announced today.
All ranks and levels of party members are to participate in these meetings, with the number of sessions increasing on a rolling basis depending on demand, party members told a news conference in Taipei.
The main theme would be the party’s ability to safeguard people’s wealth through policy proposals, such as a NT$10,000 universal cash payout, the party said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
This comes as campaigns to recall campaigns against dozens of KMT legislators continue.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) this week also announced plans to launch a series of townhall meetings across Taiwan, starting tomorrow.
The DPP government has over-collected more than NT$1.87 trillion (US$56.73 billion) in taxes between 2020 and last year, with more than NT$528 billion extra collected last year alone, KMT Organizational Development Committee director Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said.
Although the DPP said the funds would go toward paying down national debt, only about NT$390 billion has gone toward that purpose, and nobody knows where most of the remaining funds have gone, Hsu said.
The KMT proposal for a NT$10,000 payment would only cost NT$230 billion, leaving the rest of the funds to be used for social welfare programs, Hsu added.
The party’s youth movement would start grassroots campaigning as part of the nationwide briefings, said KMT Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞), who organizes KMT Studio.
The party’s youth teams, including the KMT Youth League, Department of Youth Affairs and other groups, are to go around streets and markets to defend democracy and freedom within the Republic of China, Ko said.
The party would also seek to use music and visuals to engage the public in addition to the briefings, KMT spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) said.
The party has already released an artificial intelligence-generated song, with lyrics that say: “Return the money! Return the money! Give it back DPP,” Yang added.
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