The Cabinet yesterday approved next year’s government budget, which projects NT$1.985 trillion (US$65.49 billion) in spending, with infrastructure, social welfare, drug prevention and the New Southbound Policy to see the largest increases.
National spending is to increase 0.6 percent compared with the previous fiscal year, while income is forecast to reach NT$1.89 trillion, up 2.7 percent from this year, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said.
That would leave a deficit of NT$94.6 billion, in addition to NT$79 billion in debt due next year, meaning that the government must borrow NT$173.6 billion to cover the shortfall.
Photo: George Tseng, Taipei Times
The largest expenditure is to be social welfare, which is to receive NT$490.2 billion, followed by the education, science and culture budget of NT$402 billion; national defense with NT$320 billion and economic development with NT$245.4 billion.
While the Cabinet budgeted NT$164.3 billion for public construction works, the category would also draw funds from the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program — a special category separate from the annual budget — for a combined expenditure of NT$379.1 billion, the highest public construction budget since 2012.
As the technological development sector is to also receive funding from the program, its combined budget is to total NT$148 billion, up 10.5 percent from this year.
Drug prevention, long-term care services and the New Southbound Policy are to see the largest budget increases.
Overall drug prevention funding would be NT$3.33 billion, an increase of 180.2 percent from this year, and long-term care services are to receive an additional 100.1 percent to NT$33.9 billion, while the budget to promote the New Southbound Policy is to increase 63 percent to NT$7.26 billion.
The Cabinet allocated NT$40.6 billion to the “five plus two” industrial innovation plans, up 37.2 percent from this year, to develop the “Asian Silicon Valley” initiative, “green” energy technology, “smart” machinery, biomedicine and national defense, in addition to establishing a new agricultural paradigm and a circular economy.
Food safety is to receive NT$5.45 billion, while NT$13.92 billion is to be given to air pollution control and Aboriginal policies are to receive NT$8.89 billion.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said public construction, industrial renovation, drug prevention, food safety, education and social welfare are the priorities, and the Cabinet must focus its resources on those sectors.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet has put forward its policy implementation objectives for next year.
For the economy and industry sectors, increasing renewable energy capacity to 5.84 million kilowatts, keeping power outage hours at no more than 17.28 minutes per household per year, completing one major tax reform law and attracting 32 international businesses or Taiwanese start-ups to invest in the nation are the key objectives.
The priorities for social security and welfare include apprehending at least 6,500 drug-related criminals, building 61,761 public housing units, building 1,735 long-term care service facilities, building 500 public kindergartens and improving food safety policy implementation by 80 percent.
In other categories, key objectives include finalizing 59 bilateral agreements with other nations, easing 15 visa restrictions for New Southbound Policy target countries, raising the number of students from South and Southeast Asian nations to 45,300, keeping the retention rate of volunteer soldiers at 71 percent, launching one railroad construction project and increasing the number of local Aboriginal councils by 50 percent.
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