The Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan have decided on “no countersignature and no promulgation” of an amendment to a government revenue allocation law passed by the Legislative Yuan, sources said yesterday, which would be a first in the nation’s history.
President William Lai (賴清德) would address the public over the issue tomorrow, the sources said, adding that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) would also hold a news conference to explain the reasons for not countersigning.
Amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) passed on Nov. 14 state that local governments would receive a larger share of the central government revenue each year.
Photo: CNA
The amendments also stipulate a minimum budget of project-based subsidies to be allocated to local governments, which would increase expenses by about NT$264.6 billion (US$8.48 billion).
However, the Executive Yuan said the amendments “cannot be implemented,” as they would force the central government to increase borrowing for the 2026 budget by NT$264.6 billion, pushing it beyond the statutory debt ceiling.
The Cabinet last month asked the legislature to revisit the amendments, but the request was denied by the opposition 59-50 on Friday last week, with votes to uphold the original version.
The opposition said the real reason behind Cho’s rejection of the legislation was because he wanted to keep government revenues under the control of the central government, rather than distributing them to local governments.
After the motion was voted down, Cho suggested that the Executive Yuan might ignore the amendments, saying he was “under no pressure to execute” them, citing procedural flaws in their review.
In a Friday meeting held by Lai as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) head, which was attended by all 51 DPP lawmakers and Cabinet Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵), the party caucus pledged full support for any countermeasure adopted by the Cabinet.
DPP caucus chief executive Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said that with the Constitutional Court paralyzed, Lai has asked Cho to consider not countersigning the amendment, in which case the president would not be able to promulgate the legislation.
DPP lawmakers unanimously agreed to counter what they see as potentially “unconstitutional” laws passed by the opposition, Chung said.
Lai said the amendments, along with the opposition’s blocking of a NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget, undermine national security, social stability, fiscal sustainability and civil rights.
“Under these grim circumstances, it is incumbent upon me to meet with the DPP legislative caucus to discuss how to respond,” he said.
Meanwhile, regarding amendments to the Civil Servants Retirement, Discharge and Pensions Act (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) and the Public School Employee Retirement, Discharge and Pensions Act (公立學校教職員退休資遣撫卹條例) passed by the legislature on Friday, which would suspend cuts to civil servants’ pensions and reverse fiscal reform, sources said the executive branch also plans to adopt a “no countersignature and no promulgation” approach on the grounds that pension reform cannot be rolled back.
Lai hoped the Legislative Yuan would re-examine the amendments, so he has invited Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to a “National Affairs Tea Gathering” tomorrow in hopes that Han would refrain from sending out the bill, sources said.
Han has declined the invitation.
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