Examination Yuan outlines plan to end preferential interest rate

This article was written by Cecilia Fanchiang and published by the Taiwan Journal on January 13, 2006. It reports that a plan was recently drafted by the Examination Yuan in Taiwan to put an end to the controversial 18-percent preferential interest rate on savings deposits that has been given to the country's teachers, bureaucrats and military personnel.

The Examination Yuan is in charge of government personnel planning and management. In recent years it has been pushing for a reform of the civil-service pension scheme in order to improve its fairness and legitimacy.

It is estimated that the plan to end the preferential interest rate would affect approximately 160,000 retired teachers and 70,000 other civil servants. Many of these have been staging public protests over the forthcoming reduction in their monthly pension payments.

More details about Taiwan's civil-service pension scheme are provided in this article.