Legislators are next week to hold revotes on whether to uphold the central government’s budget plan and measures raising funding allocations to local governments passed by the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan.
The revotes are scheduled for Wednesday, shortly after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) explains to lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday why the Cabinet has requested a reconsideration of the legislation, which passed with the backing of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party.
The latest agenda was adopted at yesterday’s legislative meeting after interparty negotiations called by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Wednesday to address the issue came to nothing.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
RECONSIDERATION
The Cabinet on Feb. 27 requested the revotes in a bid to overturn the legislature’s passage of the central government budget plan for this fiscal year and revisions to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) on Jan. 21 and Dec. 20 last year respectively.
Article 3-2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution states: “Should the Executive Yuan deem a statutory, budgetary, or treaty bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, the Executive Yuan may, with the approval of the president of the Republic and within 10 days of the bill’s submission to the Executive Yuan, request the Legislative Yuan to reconsider the bill.”
The legislature is required to vote on whether to uphold the passage of the legislation within 15 days after receiving the Executive Yuan’s request, or the legislation will be automatically annulled.
More than half of all sitting lawmakers must support the legislation for it to be upheld.
The Executive Yuan has said that the NT$207.6 billion (US$6.32 billion) legislative cuts to the NT$3.1 trillion budget proposed by the Cabinet “have affected the normal operations” of targeted government agencies.
In addition, the funding freezes, estimated at NT$183.1 billion, are nine times higher than the average amount over the past three years, it said.
RESPONSIBILITY
The Cabinet also requested a revote on the amendments to the budget allocation act, arguing that the measures gave local governments more funding without assigning them additional public spending responsibilities.
The amendments require the central government to allocate 40 percent of the nation’s total tax or other revenue while retaining the remaining 60 percent — a change to the 25-75 percent ratio in place since 1999.
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