《TAIPEI TIMES》 Caucuses reach deal on 15 military pension proposals

NEGOTIATIONS: Those amendments where consensus was reached yesterday are being forwarded to a second reading, but others face more debate and a plenary vote

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

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Lawmakers yesterday finalized negotiations on planned pension reforms for retired military officers and non-commissioned officers, and resolved to send 15 amendments on which no consensus was reached to a vote today.

The disputed amendments center on whether the 18 percent preferential interest rate for some savings accounts of retirees should be phased out, the starting income replacement rate, the eligibility for family members of deceased officers and non-coms to receive benefits and the conditions for splitting pensions in the case of a divorce.

The caucuses agreed to advance those amendments on which consensus had been reached to a second reading at a plenary session.

To offset a shortfall in the pension fund for military retirees as a result of the government downsizing the military, the four caucuses agreed to assign the Veterans Affairs Council to budget NT$100 billion （US$3.31 billion） in 10 years from the amendments’ promulgation.

The caucuses agreed the council is to budget no less than NT$20 billion every two years over the course of that period.

Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan （蘇嘉全） said that he granted a request by the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） caucus to assign 20 legislators to speak on the disputed amendments before they are voted on today.

The Democratic Progressive Party （DPP）, the New Power Party and the People First Party caucuses would each appoint two members to speak, Su said.

The negotiations had a rather “cordial” undercurrent, Su said, who said he hoped that each caucus would take some time to consider whether further consensus could be reached before going into today’s plenary session.

DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming （柯建銘） said that the DPP had anticipated that proposals regarding the starting income replacement rate, the 18 percent preferential interest rate and the portion of salaries to be allocated monthly for the pension fund would have to be put to vote.

He called on the KMT caucus not to filibuster, and refrain from quarrelling over the less controversial amendments scheduled to be voted on today to “set a good example” and change the legislature’s culture.

Asked why members of the KMT caucus did not sign the resolutions reached during the negotiations, KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu （李彥秀） said the caucus’ stance is not to endorse “the DPP’s pension reform.”

However, it retracted some of its motions regarding less contentious draft articles during the negotiations, and would respect the resolutions going into today’s vote, Lee said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES