The Executive Yuan would consider other legal actions if its reconsideration requests do not pass the Legislative Yuan’s vote this afternoon, including proposing a new version of the budget, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today.
The legislature met yesterday and today to review the Cabinet’s reconsideration requests for this year’s central government budget and amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) respectively.
Cho and other agency leaders presented reasoning for the requests and answered questions at the Legislative Yuan over the past two days.
Photo: CNA
The legislature plans to vote on the requests today following the question-and-answer session.
The possibility of the reconsideration requests passing is very low, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said, asking if the Executive Yuan has a back-up plan.
The Executive Yuan is “prepared for the best, but is planning for the worst,” Cho said.
Its plans are all within the legal and constitutional scope, and there are only a few methods that can be used, he said.
When the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) amended the fiscal allocation law in 2012, local governments faced a financial shortfall of NT$58.9 billion (US$1.79 billion), Cho said.
However, after several years of DPP governance and increased local subsidies, the local budget surplus reached NT$64.8 billion in 2023, he said.
This year, the total budget, including general and project-based subsidies, as well as allocated tax revenues, would provide local governments with more than NT$1 trillion, he added.
Lin called the fiscal allocation law amendments unfair, saying that as a special municipality, Tainan has a larger population and area than Changhua County, but receives less funding.
The lawmaker said that Lienchiang County’s population is less than his legislative district, yet the average subsidy per citizen is less than one-10th of that in Lienchiang.
The law can be amended, but it should not be done so recklessly, he added.
Taiwan People's Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) asked Cho if the Executive Yuan would file a constitutional interpretation or hold a referendum if the reconsideration requests are not passed.
The Executive Yuan would consider actions that are legal and constitutional, including proposing a new version of the budget, Cho said.
The Executive Yuan had many proposals to discuss on Dec. 20 last year, but the Legislative Yuan did not leave time for discussion, Cho said.
Although the Executive Yuan had proposals, it needed to discuss with local governments before presenting them, he said.
The Ministry of Finance held a meeting with experts and local governments on Thursday last week, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) said.
Huang said that the Legislative Yuan requested the Cabinet propose a version of the fiscal allocation law last year, but it did not do so for more than half a year, accusing the current discussion of being a “big performance.”
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that the reconsideration request is the first step in the democratic relief process.
If the request is unsuccessful, the caucus is prepared to file a constitutional interpretation and a provisional injunction, as these are also ways to safeguard the general budget and constitutional order, Wu said.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu
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