According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (
DGBAS officials said social welfare expenditure would be 18.8 percent of its budget proposal, followed by 16.3 percent on education, science and culture and 15.5 percent on national defense.
Expenditure on economic development is down to 13.1 percent, or 2.5 percentage points lower than last year. Market watchers said the cut in economic development expenditure in the first fiscal budget of the new administration signifies that the new administration is placing more emphasis on social welfare instead of economic development.
DGBAS officials rebuffed such criticism and said that the expenditure on public construction of the 2001 budget proposal is NT$168.6 billion more than the previous year and it would be beneficial to next year's economic development.
Seeking to focus on preparation for Typhoon Bilis, the Executive Yuan decided to postpone its weekly meeting yesterday to Friday to further discuss the budget issue.
According to revised figures, DGBAS officials said the total fiscal expenditure for 2001 budget would be NT$1.6082 trillion, up 6.3 percent over last year. The total revenue for 2001 would be NT$1.4585 trillion, an increase of 7.2 percent. Both figures represent the largest growth seen in six years.
DGBAS officials said the expenditure on national defense would be 15.5 percent of its 2001 budget, which is significantly lower than the 25 percent the government spent 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, social welfare expenditure in 2001 will see the biggets increase, up NT$92.3 billion more than previous year. However, NT$62.4 billion would be used for subsidizing losses in Labor Insurance (
As for President Chen Shui-bian's (
Although total expenditure for the 2001 budget will grow by NT$95 billion over the previous year, after deducting the necessary expenditure stipulated by law, the actual net increase in expenditure for 2001 would be only NT$1.1 billion, according to DGBAS officials.
In order to provide additional expenditure for new administration, the DGBAS has been trying hard to save money by cutting regular expenditure, including NT$28.5 billion on general transportation and over-time expenses, NT$4.8 billion for civil servants, and a NT$1 billion reduction for the Provincial Government and National Assembly (國民大會).
After the saving, DGBAS officials said the new administration would be able to spend money on crime prevention, environmental improvement and education.
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