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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Cabinet budgets for pension increase
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang, center, speaks at a protest outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday over pensions for police officers and firefighters. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
ADD-ONS: Benefits for public workers are to be adjusted and a NT$2,000 increase in professional or supervisory allowances is to be provided, the Executive Yuan said
By Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan yesterday budgeted for a provisional increase of nearly 6 percent in pensions for public-sector retirees, adding NT$11.4 billion （US$357.1 million） to planned government spending.
Pensions for retired government workers are provisionally budgeted to increase by 5.89 percent to keep up with inflation, based on the cumulative consumer price index as of May, an Executive Yuan spokesperson told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting.
The central government is to contribute NT$7.4 billion and local governments are to contribute NT$4 billion to cover the cost of the increase, officials said.
Although the increase is more than the 4 percent pay raise planned for public-sector workers, the Cabinet said it would adjust benefits and increase professional and supervisory-position allowances by NT$2,000, in addition to the pay raise.
That would result in a cumulative 5.88 to 9.98 percent pay raise for nonsupervisory civil servants and a 6.39 percent to 11.56 percent cumulative raise for supervisors, it said.
A Directorate-General of Personnel Administration spokesperson said military service members are included in the pay increases and would receive other allowances depending on their occupational specialty.
The Executive Yuan in February approved making personnel in qualifying drone units eligible for the combat unit allowance, they said.
Combat unit allowance eligibility was broadened to include personnel in operational-sustainment units at or below brigade level, they said.
The scheme would allow conscripts in combat units to receive the same combat unit allowances as volunteers serving in the same roles, they said.
It would increase the monthly salary of a private second class to NT$57,330 and a battalion commander holding the rank of lieutenant colonel to NT$100,360, up 48.43 percent and 33.12 percent respectively, they said.
Dangerous-duty allowance supplements for police officers and firefighters, which vary by locality, could reach a maximum additional 130 percent of the underlying allowance in Taipei and New Taipei City, while the criminal-work supplement for qualifying police officers would also increase, the spokesperson said.
The measure would benefit about 81,000 police officers and firefighters, they said.
Eligibility for performance-based bonuses and bonuses for dangerous or nighttime duties would also be broadened, they added.
During their review of the budget, opposition lawmakers had demanded a NT$30,000 monthly allowance for volunteer military personnel and a higher income replacement rate for police officers and firefighters.
As the measures were excluded from the budget, lawmakers yesterday led retired police officers and firefighters in a protest outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Premier Cho Jung-tai （卓榮泰） said that the income replacement rate for a police officer with 35 years of service could already reach 69 percent.
Efforts to improve public-sector compensation are ongoing, he said, adding that salaries have been raised four times over the past decade, with a fifth raise planned for next year, and multiple allowances have been adjusted since last year.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
