The Constitutional Court today accepted petitions from the Executive Yuan and lawmakers to conduct a constitutional interpretation of this year's central government budget.
The Legislative Yuan passed the central government budget on Jan. 21 with historic budget cuts and freezes to government agencies.
On March 12, the Legislative Yuan rejected the Executive Yuan’s request to reconsider the budget as well as amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法).
Photo: CNA
On March 21, President William Lai (賴清德) promulgated the budget and amendments to the revenue act.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and 50 other legislators filed a petition with the Constitutional Court in May asking for a constitutional review of the budget.
They said the budget may be unconstitutional, as it failed to specify the total expenditure, requiring the Executive Yuan to make its own adjustments and budget cuts.
It also cut or froze the operational funds for various government branches and agencies, including the Control Yuan, Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, Executive Yuan, Presidential Office, Energy Administration, Resource Circulation Administration, Council of Indigenous Peoples, and Ministry of Transportation and Communications, affecting their operations, they said.
Additional across-the-board cuts to special expenses and general administrative expenses may also be unconstitutional, they said.
The Executive Yuan also filed a petition with the Constitutional Court in May asking for a constitutional judgement on the budget.
The Constitutional Court decided to accept the two petitions in accordance with Paragraph 2, Article 32 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), the Judicial Yuan said today.
The court has yet to accept the Executive Yuan’s and DPP caucus’ additional petitions for a constitutional judgement on the revenue act.
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