The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments that would mandate the distribution of cash payments to the public if tax revenues exceed budget projections by a set threshold.
Lawmakers from the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party submitted twin proposals to amend the Budget Act (預算法) mandating cash handouts to the public if actual tax revenues exceed budget estimates by 120 percent or NT$300 billion (US$9.08 billion).
Tax collection last fiscal year reached a record NT$3.7619 trillion, surpassing the budget forecast by NT$528.3 billion.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The KMT has previously proposed distributing NT$10,000 in cash to each person, which would cost NT$230 billion in total.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government favors using the revenue surplus to pay down the national debt, reserving it for future use, or using it to boost the national defense budget.
KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) said the public should share in the benefits of the nation’s economic success, adding that other countries and territories, including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and the US, have implemented similar programs.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) questioned the constitutionality of the opposition’s proposal, saying the legislature only has the power to review — not propose — budget bills.
The KMT’s proposal is an attempt to use a “legislative amendment” to conceal the fact that its proposal is a “budget” proposal, he said.
Political Deputy Minister of Finance Juan Ching-hua (阮清華) told the committee that higher-than-expected tax revenues did not necessarily mean that the country’s finances are in order.
From 2012 to 2023, Taiwan posted budget surpluses only three times, while running a budget deficit “in almost every other year,” he said.
Based on the KMT proposals, even when tax revenues exceed the budget forecast but still fall short of expenditure, the government could be legally bound to borrow money to distribute as cash handouts, Juan said.
Following the debate, the committee advanced the proposals for a reading in the full legislature on Friday.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS