Print

Mail

wiki links

Opposition attacks budget proposal, says cuts needed

Opposition lawmakers said that Cabinet-proposed cuts in the central government's 2002 budget are the lowest in a decade, proving that the present government is hopelessly inefficient.

People First Party lawmaker Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said that an opposition budget review shows that the upcoming Cabinet budget should be cut dramatically, since, according to his figures, about half of this year's budget went unspent.

"The spending of this year's central government budget allocations were less than 50 percent. This year, the Cabinet continues the same mistakes," he said.

"Discounting the possibility that parts of the proposals may not conform to the law or that sections could overlap between agencies, the budgets are still too fat," he said.

Liu put the blame for the opposition's failure to cooperate during the budget's formulation squarely on TV commercials run by the DPP during the legislative election campaign.

Liu said the commercials which named members of the opposition who alleged the ruling party, irrationally cut the budget and forced them to walk out, in part contributing to budget problems.

Liu said that the review by opposition lawmakers focused on budgets for various government agencies, which accounted for between 75 percent and 80 percent of the total annual budget, which was about NT$1.2 trillion (US$34.48 billion).

Liu said that the average ratio of cuts in budgets was around 1.8 percent over the past 10 years, adding that the lowest rate was 0.93 percent for last year's budget. This was the year after the disastrous 921 earthquake which claimed 2,400 lives and caused widespread damage, particularly in central Taiwan.

In comparison, he noted that the ratio of budget cuts proposed by the twelve budget-screening committees this month have been between 0.2 percent and 0.5 percent, which is a significant drop from past cuts.

Liu said that since the job market and economic growth rate next year are expected to be disappointing, the financial situation can only worsen if the budget cuts are too small, particularly given that next year might be a lean one for government revenue.

The KMT agreed that bloated budgets would aggravate the government deficit.

"Lawmakers are reluctant to cut budgets because they are afraid of public criticism," said KMT legislative caucus leader Lee Cheng-tsung (李正宗). "It will lead to massive government waste."

Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), DPP party whip in the legislature, said that the ruling party would consult with the opposition during floor meetings, adding that the review of the budget should be pragmatic and not dogmatically follow the ratio of budget cuts in previous years.

Noting that this is the first time that legislators have reviewed a budget after a legislative election, Tsai said that lawmakers seemed "listless" in their review. He said that the legislators should show self-discipline and do their utmost to more carefully review the budget.
This story has been viewed 3670 times.