The Executive Yuan is to request the Legislative Yuan unfreeze all 1,584 frozen budget items, totaling NT$138.1 billion (US$4.25 billion), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today.
The Executive Yuan would request each ministry, which are all facing different circumstances due to budget freezes, to submit budget unfreezing requests to the Legislative Yuan in a “submit all, unfreeze all” policy, Cho said to reporters prior to a meeting at the legislature.
Hopefully funds would be unfrozen as soon as possible, so that administrative agencies can function normally, he said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
These items can be divided into three categories with regard to their unfreezing procedures, Cho said.
The first category, including 1,162 items totaling NT$15.4 billion, can be unfrozen upon submission of a written report, he said.
The second, including 373 items totaling NT$36.6 billion, requires a special report to be submitted and reviewed before funds are unfrozen, he said.
The third, including 49 items totaling the most at NT$86.1 billion, are special frozen items with different requirements, he added.
Later responding to questions from legislators, Cho said that the Executive Yuan would request constitutional interpretations for both the general budget and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), as the legislature rejected the Cabinet’s reconsideration requests.
“We do not recognize these budget review procedures as legal or constitutional,” he said.
In addition, since a budget to cover 3 percent salary raises for military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers was cut, these funds would be reallocated from within the internal budget and dispersed next month, Cho said.
Additional reporting by Liu Wan-lin
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS