The Executive Yuan is to ask the legislature to reconsider a government budget bill and fiscal allocation amendment after receiving approval from President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
The changes would make it difficult for the government to implement policies, while disrupting its five branches and violating procedural justice, Cho said.
They risk destroying the nation’s constitutional system, contravening the principle of separation of powers, violating the public’s basic rights, undermining democracy and the rule of law, weakening the nation’s fiscal stability and making it difficult for the government to allocate funds, Cho said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The central government is willing to talk to local governments to come up with a reasonable and sustainable version of the fiscal law, he added.
The Legislative Yuan last week submitted this year’s central government budget 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 an amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) that was 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 yesterday.
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 lawmakers.
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 the Executive Yuan’s request lawfully, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said, but added that the revote is doomed to fail.
The Ministry of Finance yesterday said the amended budget allocation act would mean an average 20 percent slash in budgets.
Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華) said that the budget reductions would not only affect national defense spending, but would also cut into childcare programs, under which parents of newborns are eligible for stipends of NT$5,000 to NT$7,000 monthly.
Public daycare subsidies of NT$7,000 to NT$13,000 per person could be reduced to between NT$4,900 and NT$9,100, while rental subsidies, set at NT$2,000 to NT$8,000, could be decreased to between NT$1,400 and NT$5,600, Juan said.
The ministry yesterday sent notices asking local governments to send representatives to a meeting to discuss the amendment, Juan said, adding that he hoped local governments would be able to provide constructive criticism rationally and peacefully.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Sam Garcia
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