The economic slowdown and reduction in tax revenues means there was a limited possibility that the government could increase next year’s budget, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) was quoted as saying yesterday in a statement.
The statement issued by the Executive Yuan said that Liu recently turned down a draft proposal that would have seen the budget for next year increase by NT$200 billion (US$6.126 billion).
Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) recently said tax revenue collected as of last month had fallen by 20 percent from the same period last year and was between NT$100 billion and NT$150 billion less than expected.
“Based on the finance ministry’s estimates, we can’t be too optimistic about the outlook for tax revenue next year because some taxes are deferred taxes,” Liu said.
Liu said that the government could not afford to expand the scale of its public spending given that the economic situation had hit tax revenues.
He asked government agencies to conduct thorough reviews of the way their budgets are spent this year so they could secure funding for new plans either by suspending unnecessary projects or by scaling down budgets for ongoing projects.
The premier’s statement marked a stark contrast to the government’s position on this issue late last year when Lee said that the government would raise loans to revive the economy as a fiscal deficit was not the main concern during the global economic woes.
Data compiled by the MOF showed the government received revenue of NT$1.6 trillion last year, NT$1.24 trillion of which was collected from taxes. The government saw a budget deficit for six consecutive years from 2000 to 2005, amounting to more than NT$100 trillion per year.
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