The Executive Yuan is to request the legislature to reconsider the government budget bill and the fiscal law amendment bill after seeking approval from the president, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today.
Cho said the Executive Yuan would not be requesting a review if the bills would not make it difficult for the government to implement policies, disrupt its five branches and violate procedural justice.
The bills would destroy the nation’s constitutional system, contravene the principle of separation of powers, violate the public’s basic rights, undermine democracy and the rule of law, weaken the nation’s fiscal stability and make it difficult for the government to allocate funds, said Cho.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The central government is willing to talk to the local governments to come up with a reasonable and sustainable version of the fiscal law, he said.
The Legislative Yuan last week submitted this year’s central government budget bill and its review to the Executive Yuan for promulgation.
It was reported that the content of the review appeared to be the same as the original bill and still does not specify the exact amounts of budget cuts and freezes.
The bill 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.
That amendment would allocate 40 percent of the nation’s total taxation and other revenue to local governments, up from 25 percent. The remaining 60 percent is to be retained by the central government.
This year’s budget is the highest in recent years, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said.
If the Executive Yuan thinks it is not enough, it should propose an additional budget, Chu said, adding that Cho should deliver a report in the legislature and debate the issue with legislators.
Amendments to the fiscal law have been proposed by the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party for a long time, he said, adding that the aim is to allocate a reasonable amount of funding to local governments.
The opposition would discuss and reject the Executive Yuan’s request lawfully, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said.
This revote is doomed to fail, she said.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Sam Garcia
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