A month after the bill was passed, the Legislative Yuan yesterday submitted this year’s central government budget bill and its review to the Executive Yuan for promulgation, unchanged.
The content of the review appears to be the same as the original bill and still does not specify the exact amounts of budget cuts and freezes, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported.
It was submitted alongside amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) that were passed on Dec. 20 last year.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
That amendment would give 40 percent of the nation’s total taxation or other revenue to local governments, up from 25 percent. The remainder is to be given to the central government.
“If the review has the same content, then what was the Legislative Yuan doing for the past month?” Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) asked.
“This proves how rough and hasty the review process has been,” she said.
The total expenditures were not detailed in the bill due to overlapping budget cuts made during different phases of the review.
Budget reductions totaled NT$111.36 billion (US$3.4 billion), including NT$6.738 billion cut by various committees and NT$106.862 billion cut by legislative caucuses.
A general reduction of no less than NT$93.975 billion was applied, with the Executive Yuan responsible for verifying and implementing the budget adjustments for affected agencies.
The submission of both the budget bill and the amendments have been delayed for a long time, Wu said.
“Everyone wants to know the actual calculated outcome of the budget,” she said, adding that those who reviewed it must take responsibility.
If the Legislative Yuan cannot calculate the exact numbers, it should not shift the responsibility to the Executive Yuan, she said.
The opposition parties instigated this process by including random and repeated budget proposals, Wu said, calling for a concrete explanation.
“This is truly absurd,” she added.
An anonymous source in the Legislative Yuan said that the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics did not prepare a table of the various cuts for each agency as the proposals were passed, as it has done in the past.
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