The Executive Yuan today warned that if amendments to the central government’s ability to control revenues go into effect, it would impact next year’s budget and may even require it to be reconfigured.
On Friday last week, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) for the first time in more than 25 years to allocate more funding for local governments rather than the central government.
If the president promulgates the amendments and they go into effect, next year’s general budget would be in jeopardy, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said.
Photo: CNA
The new law affects local revenues, but not the expenditures, so further revisions to the budgets are likely, Director-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Chen Shu-tzu (陳淑姿) said.
The Executive Yuan is looking at constitutional relief procedures and other response measures, Lee added.
It is unfortunate that no consensus was reached and the amendments were hastily pushed through, Lee said.
Although local governments are responsible for services like welfare, education, water resources and local transportation, not all municipalities are able to generate revenues equally, leading to the central government providing support through subsidies and development programs, Lee said.
In response to calls to amend the fiscal regulations, the Executive Yuan has held meetings with different sectors and officials, but forging consensus takes time, she said.
The opposition parties pushed through the amendments before a consensus could be reached, she added.
As the amendment did not include an effective date, it would go into effect three days after the president promulgates it, meaning that it could affect budgets as soon as next year, she added.
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