Projects and services benefiting the public are to be severely affected if an amendment to fiscal planning law passed on Friday last week is officially promulgated, government agencies said yesterday.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) on Monday said that the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) would take effect three days after it is promulgated by President William Lai (賴清德).
Next year’s overall government budget would be seriously affected by the amendments and might need to be reallocated, she added.
Photo: CNA
Under the changes, the central government needs to allocate NT$375.3 billion (US$11.49 billion) to local governments, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
As a result, funding for the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of National Defense would be reduced by 28 percent, it said.
Speaking to reporters yesterday prior to a news conference, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said that the amendments would cause public health and social welfare funds to shrink, including childcare subsidies.
It would also affect the health ministry’s efforts to strengthen cancer prevention and expand free cancer screenings, as well as funding for cancer treatments, research and drugs, Chiu said.
Efforts aimed at countering the declining birthrate, including childcare subsidies for children aged 2 and younger, various childcare services and subsidies for assisted reproduction treatments would also be impacted, he said.
Health and welfare policies have nationwide significance and cannot be determined solely based on local preferences, he added.
“We place great emphasis on overall inclusiveness, ensuring that all citizens have equal access to healthcare regardless of which county or city they live in,” Chiu said.
That requires the central government to have sufficient resources to improve healthcare, social welfare and medical services, and create better working conditions for medical and healthcare professionals, he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that the amendments would mean a significant budget reduction for his ministry and affect inter-regional initiatives such as waste management and the net zero carbon goals.
The environment ministry faces budget cuts of up to NT$2 billion due to the amendments, Peng told reporters.
The central government would have less capacity to contribute to net zero carbon initiatives, which means net zero carbon targets might need to be adjusted, he said.
Subsidies for electric buses, which improve air quality and often support disadvantaged regions, could also be impacted, he added.
The environment ministry currently handles construction and waste management projects by coordinating with local governments, but if funding is shifted to local governments, local authorities would need to shoulder more responsibility and differing priorities between regions could lead to certain issues being overlooked, Peng said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS