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
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS