Fri, Jul 14, 2017 page3

• Civic groups disagree on program budget

  PRIORITIES: Citizen’s Congress Watch said the Legislative Yuan should first pass an overdue budget for state-owned enterprises, which has cleared committee review

  • By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
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  A planned review of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program budget yesterday drew conflicting reactions from civic groups, with one environmental group calling for additional funding even as others called for the review to be postponed or stopped.

  “The current budget is insufficient, because it does not include any funds for a ‘blue road’ coastal ferry service and the first stage does not include the doubling of railway on the eastern coast,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Liou Gin-show (劉俊秀) told a news conference, calling infrastructure development plans for eastern counties “far too slow.”

  “Plans to develop MRT and light rail systems in western cities such as Hsinchu, Tainan and Kaohsiung can be slowed down a bit, because residents need to get used to using public transportation first,” Liou said. “However, rail development on the east coast is extremely urgent, because there is no way to get to most places other than driving.”

  

  Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Liou Gin-show, left, and vice chairman Liu Jih-jian hold a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Cheng Hung-ta, Taipei Times

  There has been opposition to a proposal to expand eastern coastal highways following the temporary closure of the Suhua Highway due to a landslide in May, with some calling for an expanded rail line complemented by new bus and ferry services, he said.

  “We oppose expanding the Suhua Highway, because that area is not suited to road building, as evidenced by numerous landslides. While the road should still be kept open, government policy should be to reduce usage as much as possible,” Liou said.

  Alternate proposals include a new toll system, the addition of a parallel set of rails along the east coast and electrifying the South-Link Line (南迴鐵路), he added.

  “Failure to include a parallel set of rails for the east coast in the first stage of government infrastructure plans is a mistake, because the region’s residents are clustered along a long, narrow corridor and the railway has the potential to work like an MRT system,” Liou said, adding that the limitation of a single set of tracks has prevented widespread use of frequent “local train” services available in western areas.

  Small or medium buses based at rail stations should be used to expand the availability of public transportation from stations to nearby “zones,” he said, adding that a regular ferry service along the east coast would enable the transportation system to better cope with earthquakes and typhoons, which can lead to extended closures.

  However, at a separate news conference, Citizen’s Congress Watch blasted the legislature for prioritizing the special budget for the program over the overdue regular budget for state-owned enterprises.

  “This fiscal year’s regular budget for state-owned enterprises has yet to be passed, even though it encompasses more than NT$5 trillion [US$164.6 billion], while the forward-looking program’s budget is only a little more than NT$400 million over four years,” Citizen’s Congress Watch executive director Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) said, adding that failing to address the state-run enterprises budget during an extraordinary legislative session would likely ensure that its passage is delayed until November, a full year past its legal deadline for passage.

  State-owned firms operate based on the parameters of the most recently passed fiscal budget if a new budget is not approved by the legal deadline, a common occurrence over the past few years.

  “If the Democratic Progressive Party is serious about economic and infrastructure development, it should not ignore new plans in the state-owned enterprises budget,” Chang said. “For example, Taiwan Power Co has plans to promote renewable energy, but the government is setting them aside to pass ‘special’ budgets to promote renewable energy — what sense does that make?”

  As committee review of the state-owned enterprises budget has already been completed, review could begin immediately at the extraordinary legislative session, Citizen’s Congress Watch department of policy director Allen Tian (田君陽) said.

  He condemned calls for the Legislative Yuan to add funds to the program’s budget, saying that would violate the separation of powers, citing constitutional provisions limiting the legislature’s power to cut funds from budgets proposed by the Executive Yuan.
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