The Cabinet yesterday approved a NT$108.9 billion (US$3.56 billion) budget for the first two years of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, all of which will be financed by government borrowing.
The overall budget includes NT$17.06 billion for railway projects, NT$25.67 billion for water-related projects, NT$8.12 billion for “green” energy projects, NT$16.17 billion for digital projects, NT$35.41 billion for urban and rural development, NT$1.96 billion for measures to increase the nation’s birth rate, NT$312 million for food safety and NT$4.2 billion to cultivate talent.
The budget is NT$3.6 billion less than the Cabinet’s original budget for those two years, as the budget cap has been lowered.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The first four years of the planned eight-year program —which has a total budget of NT$420 billion — are expected to increase GDP by 0.1 percent, with an increase of NT$470.5 billion in real GDP contributions and NT$506.5 billion in nominal GDP contributions, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said.
With the new allocations, the government’s debt load would increase by NT$200 billion in the next fiscal year, with a predicted debt-to-GDP ratio of 33.3 percent, Chu said.
The ratio would be kept at about 33 percent until 2021, well below the maximum debt ratio of 40.6 percent, he added.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has raised doubts about local governments’ ability to pay their portions, but Chu said there is still room for local government borrowing.
Local governments have to raise NT$225 billion to start the projects, but about NT$135 billion could be repaid with revenue from the new infrastructure, he said.
That would reduce the borrowing costs to NT$90 billion and there is still a NT$600 billion buffer before local government borrowing would reach its maximum, he said.
“Green” energy and digital infrastructure projects were expected to raise NT$1.77 trillion in public and private investment over the eight-year course of the program, officials have said.
That goal is attainable even though the program has been divided into two four-year periods because most “green” energy and digital infrastructure projects could be completed in four years, National Development Council Minister Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝) said.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the Special Act on the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (前瞻基礎建設特別條例), which stipulates that annual government borrowing cannot exceed 15 percent of annual government expenditure, is the first special budget law that includes borrowing regulations to ensure financial discipline.
“This has never been done before and hopefully it [the codification of borrowing rules into a budget law] will establish a new paradigm to ensure the nation’s financial health,” Lin said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS