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Cabinet passes arms budget plan

The Cabinet yesterday approved a new proposal for weapons procurement, reducing a special budget for the purchase to NT$340 billion (US$10.4 billion) from the original NT$610.8 billion by transferring one item to the regular annual budget.

"We are not introducing a new amended budget proposal for weapons procurement and will continue to seek support from the legislature," Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said at a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.

The Cabinet had originally proposed a special budget to fund the purchase of three PAC-3 missile batteries, 12 P3C maritime patrol aircraft and eight diesel-powered submarines. The pan-blue alliance, however, has blocked the plan from being discussed in the legislature, claiming that the purchase would spark an arms race with China that could bankrupt Taiwan.

With an aim to placate the opposition parties, the Ministry of National Defense finally decided to adopt a new funding approach by splitting the funding of the items between a modified special budget and the regular defense allocation.

Cho said the new proposal takes the PAC-3 missile batteries out of the special budget and lists them as part of the ministry's annual budget.

The P-3C aircraft and the subs remain in the special budget, he said.

"The new NT$340 billion budget is not the bottom line. It is a reasonable price with some room to negotiate with the seller where necessary," he said.

Acknowledging that the procurement proposal has been pending at the legislature for more than a year, Cho said that as Cabinet officials understood why lawmakers were vetoing the plan, they decided to make a change and continue to negotiate with legislators.

"We understood that we needed to do something to cope with this," Cho said. "In addition to continuous negotiation, explanation and communication with lawmakers, we decided to make a change in the budget itself, too."

According to Cho, the NT$340 billion budget spans 15 years.

In related developments, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) also approved an additional NT$3.5 billion to be included as part of the annual budget for the ministry, to cover the cost of purchasing the missile batteries.
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