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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》Examination Yuan’s, office’s draft bills clash
By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Examination Yuan yesterday approved a draft act bill on the retirement benefits for civil servants that is in apparent conflict with the Presidential Office’s reform plans, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） vowing that it would not back the bill.
The bill — which has been described as a “watered down” version of the proposal put forward by the Presidential Office’s pension reform committee — conflicts with the committee’s proposal in terms of its income replacement rate plan and its method of calculation for insured salaries.
In the Examination Yuan’s version, the income replacement rate for public servants would be lowered from 80 percent to 70 percent over a 10-year period for retirees with 35 years of service, while the committee’s proposal would lower the rate from 75 percent to 60 percent over a 15-year period for the same group.
The average insured salary is calculated based on the average of the highest 120 months on which premiums were paid in the Examination Yuan’s proposal, while the committee’s proposal suggests calculating it based on the highest 180 months.
The inconsistencies are to mitigate the effect on retirees and soon-to-retire civil servants, while allowing the public sector to retain talent, Examination Yuan member He Chi-peng （何寄澎） said.
The act is to phase out a controversial 18 percent preferential savings rate for civil servants over six years, consistent with the committee’s proposal.
For people receiving monthly retirement payments, the rate would 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, after which there would be no preferential interest rate.
For people who received a lump-sum payout, the rate would be adjusted to 12 percent in the first two years after retirement and lowered by 2 percent every two years after that, with a flat interest rate of 6 percent from the seventh year onward.
People receiving less than NT$32,160 are to retain a rate of 18 percent.
Under the act, the average monthly pension for retired public servants would drop from NT$56,000 to NT$48,000.
For people who have served 30 years — a major segment of all public employees — their pensions would decrease by between 13.93 percent and 23.53 percent.
“The reform is necessitated by changes in the environment rather than by mistakes of an individual or a line of work. Public servants cannot be stigmatized during the course of reform, and the reform should not be used to create conflicts,” Examination Yuan President Wu Jin-lin （伍錦霖） said.
The Examination Yuan is to strongly defend the draft act during legislative review, although it is apparently not favored by the ruling party and the Presidential Office, Wu said.
Following the announcement of the act, the DPP caucus said it would back the replacement rate reduction and the calculation method for insured salaries in the committee’s proposal, which is yet to be formally announced.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi （李俊俋） said the committee’s version would ensure better pension fund stability and ensure that younger generations could receive pensions.
The DPP caucus is set to propose its own reform plan today, Lee added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Examination Yuan President Wu Jin-lin, center, yesterday speaks at a news conference in Taipei after the Examination Yuan approved a draft act on retirement benefits for public-sector workers Photo: Wu Po-wei, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） Legislator Yeh Yi-jin looks on as DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi, left, speaks as at a news conference in Taipei about pension reform yesterday. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
