The Legislative Yuan yesterday on third reading passed the central government budget for this year, cutting 6.6 percent from the Executive Yuan’s proposed expenditure — the largest in history.
The budget proposal, which the Cabinet approved in August last year, set government spending at NT$3.1325 trillion (US$95.6 billion), with projected revenues of NT$3.1534 trillion — both record highs — working out to a surplus of NT$20.9 billion.
On Friday last week, the opposition-led legislature voted to cut NT$93.98 billion from the budget’s general provisions.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
During a 20-hour continuous session from Monday until yesterday morning, they continued to slash the budgets of government agencies, bringing the total budget cuts to about NT$207.5 billion.
Cuts from general provisions include a 10 percent reduction in water and electricity fees, and 60 percent on special expenditures.
Special expenses for the Executive Yuan, the Mainland Affairs Council, the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the National Communications Commission, the Control Yuan, and the ministries of the interior, agriculture, digital affairs, justice, civil service and labor were completely eliminated.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
There would also be a 3 percent cut on military equipment and facilities.
Media policy and promotion expenses would be uniformly cut by 60 percent, unless otherwise specified.
More controversial proposals include a 70 percent freeze on the Executive Yuan’s operating expenses, a 50 percent cut and 30 percent freeze on the Control Yuan’s operating expenses, a 50 percent freeze on the Ministry of National Defense’s submarine budget and a 50 percent freeze on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) operating expenses.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
While the opposition defended the reductions, saying they were seeking to stop wasteful spending, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) at press conference yesterday accused the opposition parties of “indiscriminately cutting budget items” in an attempt to disrupt the political operations of the Executive Yuan.
The proposed central government budget includes new items such as NT$79.8 billion for public construction, NT$41.5 billion for national defense expenditure, NT$36.6 billion for a National Health Insurance financial assistance program, NT$6 billion to improve the medical industry, NT$4 billion for a national cancer prevention program, NT$20 billion for public housing, NT$13.6 billion for national pension, NT$12.6 billion for National Science and Technology Council research projects, NT$5.3 billion for local teaching facilities and NT$4.9 billion for childcare services for children aged two to six, Cho said.
There is also an additional NT$2.2 billion for salary increases for public servants and military personnel that needs to be allocated, he added.
It is uncertain when the more than NT$260 billion frozen funds would be unlocked, which would delay many national projects and policies that are scheduled to start at the beginning of the year, Cho said.
Freezing 50 percent of the defense ministry’s submarine budget would undermine international confidence in Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, he said.
Freezing 50 percent of MOFA’s operational budget would halt half of its activities at a time when Taiwanese diplomacy must remain strong to combat Chinese pressure, he said.
Separately, Bureau of Consular Affairs Deputy Director-General Chen Shang-yu (陳尚友) said the legislature’s 10 percent cut of administrative fees across all agencies — including about NT$120 million for the bureau — might affect passport issuance from October.
The bureau estimates that 2.05 million to 2.09 million new passports would be issued this year, but after the budget cut, the remaining funds would only be enough to issue about 1.85 million passports, so there might be difficulty issuing new ones from October, he said.
He also reminded the public to check their passport validity date if they plan to travel during the Lunar New Year holiday as consular offices would be closed from Saturday to Feb. 2.
People who need to renew their passport must apply before tomorrow to receive it on Friday.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu, Lee I-chia and AFP
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her disabled son from imprisonment. After carefully reviewing the case, Lai pardoned Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子) from the prison sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the extreme circumstances she faced, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. Under Article 3 of the Amnesty Act (赦免法), the two kinds of pardons are exempting an offender from the execution of a punishment or declaring the punishment to be invalid. Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son, before
HOLIDAY RUSH: Airport passenger volume is expected to reach a new high, while southbound road traffic would likely peak from Tuesday As Lunar New Year travelers flock overseas, passenger traffic at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is expected to shatter records, as Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC, 桃園國際機場), Taiwan’s largest aviation hub operator, projected yesterday’s passenger volume to climb to 167,000. The figure comes after a record single-day high of 161,000 passengers on Thursday, and would surpass the previous pre-COVID-19 pandemic Lunar New Year peak of 166,000 passengers in 2019, TIAC said. Long lines could be seen forming as early as 7am yesterday, filling Terminal 1 of the airport almost to capacity, yet security checks took only 10 to 15 minutes. TIAC urged
RSS