Opposition parties today plan to push for passage of their proposed amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) to better support outlying islands, after voicing dissatisfaction with the Executive Yuan’s version of draft amendments that was released yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed amendments to Article 16-1 of the bill and are calling on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to respect the rights of Taiwan’s outlying islands when drafting fiscal allocation laws.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved its version of draft amendments that would raise funds for local governments to a record high of NT$1.2 trillion (US$38.34 billion) next year.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
The Cabinet’s version of the draft would increase the total amount of centrally allocated tax revenue, general subsidies and project-based subsidies.
The Executive Yuan has drafted a version that “tramples on public opinion” and is engaging in “unconstitutional and chaotic government,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday.
The draft completely deviates from the legislature’s original intent in amending the law: to fix severe inequities in fiscal distribution, the TPP caucus said yesterday in a statement.
The proposal is “a major regression for democracy” and “shameful,” it added.
Also up for discussion in today’s plenary session are amendments to Article 23 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法), also proposed by the opposition.
Article 23 states that the referendum day would be the fourth Saturday of August every other year and shall be nominated a public holiday.
Referendums used to be held along with national elections until the act was amended in 2017 to lower the threshold for initiating and passing referendums.
The TPP seeks to amend the act to bind referendums to national elections with the aim of garnering more votes in referendums, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said in August.
Today’s session would also discuss amendments to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) and portions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法).
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
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