Lawmakers yesterday reached an agreement to tentatively trim NT$14.7 billion (US$499.49 million) from the NT$1.99 trillion general budget for this fiscal year.
It was the first round of negotiations about the general budget.
As the budget includes the funds needed for the Executive Yuan’s proposal to grant public servants, public-school teachers and military personnel a 3 percent salary raise, it would put the government in a dire situation if lawmakers were to freeze the budget at a 1 percent increase, as they did last year, Legislative speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said, asking the four legislative caucuses not to be too harsh when slashing funds.
The caucuses tentatively settled on trimming NT$14.7 billion from the budget, but Su said the final amount would be decided toward the end of next week, when lawmakers would have reviewed requests by respective agencies.
Lawmakers also partially froze the requested budgets of several agencies, including the Central Election Commission and the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee.
Su instructed those agencies to report on how they intend to resolve issues lawmakers raised before next week’s cross-caucus negotiations so that the lawmakers could decide whether to unfreeze their budgets.
Meanwhile, the four caucuses tendered about 3,500 motions regarding the general budget.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus submitted more than 2,500 motions; the New Power Party (NPP) tendered about 700 motions; and the People First Party (PFP) filed about 200 motions, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
The DPP caucus reportedly filed about 20 motions.
Ker criticized the NPP for filing a slew of motions, as the KMT caucus did last year.
More than 100 motions filed by the NPP to slash agencies’ budgets were aimed at the National Police Agency (NPA), which could be in “retaliation” against the agency, Ker said, in reference to a clash between campaigners and police during the Sunflower movement, in which NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) was a prominent figure.
The NPP caucus proposed trimming the NPA budget because the agency ignored a proposal that police officers tasked with maintaining public order wear name tags on their uniforms, NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
The NPP also tendered a motion to stop handing cash gifts to civil servants, public-school teachers and military personnel at the end of the year, Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, regardless of their pay grades.
The motion was set aside for further deliberation at a plenary session next week.
The KMT caucus is seeking to slash the budget earmarked for the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), as the latter has not been performing regular duties since Beijing started “snubbing” communication from Taipei, KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
The assets committee’s chairman is paid hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars per month, while budgeting personnel costs for agencies such as the MAC, which has a poor functionality, is a waste of taxpayers’ money, Lin said
The KMT caucus is to scrutinize whether the Cabinet made budget requests that overlap with funds already allocated to projects under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Project, the budget for which was passed last year, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
The budget review is to be continued from Monday through Thursday next week.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
RSS