A group of KMT lawmakers yesterday criticized the Executive Yuan's much-publicized NT$810 billion infrastructure package as being a con, claiming that it in fact contains only NT$111.5 billion of additional investment for this fiscal year.
Legislators Tina Pan (
"The government uses empty numbers to cheat the people, claiming that it's worth NT$810 billion," Pan said.
"A mere slogan can never solve the economic problems we face at this moment," he added.
The package was put forth by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) on March 8 as a measure to stimulate Taiwan's sluggish economy.
As part of the NT$810 billion package, the Executive Yuan has raised an NT$111.5 billion additional budget bill, which would allow some new infrastructure projects (that were originally planned for the 2002 fiscal year) to be started during the 2001 fiscal year as a means for increasing government spending and stimulating domestic demand.
The legislature's Budget and Final Accounts Committee is scheduled to review the bill tomorrow.
The Council of Economic Planning and Development has predicted that the additional spending will create some 38,000 local job opportunities and upgrade Taiwan's projected economic growth by 0.7 percentage points to become 5.3 percent this year.
Despite the fact that only NT$111.5 billion of the measure is new investment, the Executive Yuan has recently aired a series of commercials on TV to promote the package with a slogan stressing that the NT$810 billion-worth package will "get Taiwan in gear."
Citing the example of a measure adopted for a similar purpose during the office of former Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) in 1998, George Chen (陳世圯), former vice minister of transportation and communications, said that only additional spending that is not covered in the original budget and not intended for an ongoing project should be considered useful for stimulating domestic demand.
"Most importantly, the government should be able to finish at least 95 percent of the budget within a year in order to bring about an immediate effect on the economy," said Chen, who is currently a research fellow at a KMT think tank.
The criticism by the KMT lawmakers, however, was considered meaningless by the DPP.
Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (
"The purpose of the propaganda [which emphasizes the NT$810 billion] is to restore public faith in the economy, though I personally don't approve of this sort of propaganda, either," Hsu said.
Hsu said that what the lawmakers should do is to check the budget bill carefully to ensure the money is used efficiently and pass it as soon as possible, rather than criticize how the package is publicized by the Cabinet.
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