Opposition parties yesterday again blocked a special budget aimed at bolstering the nation’s overall defense posture and the general budget for this year because of what they said was the government’s failure to prepare a budget in accordance with the law.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus had placed a motion on the agenda for yesterday’s legislative session that would have sent the budget proposals to committee for review, but it was voted down 59-50 by lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
The vote came after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) warned that failure to pass the NT$3.03 trillion (US$95.9 billion) general budget could keep the central government from accessing NT$299.2 billion in funds, including for defense and local government allocations.
Photo: CNA
Those funds would be earmarked for new initiatives (NT$101.7 billion), expenses and continuing programs (NT$180.5 billion), the First and Second Reserve Funds, and the Disaster Reserve Fund (NT$17 billion).
The government would still be able to draw on other funds for such payments as civil servant salaries and statutory social welfare payments under a “provisional budget” mechanism based on the previous year’s approved budget.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said after the vote that his caucus hopes President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration would first compile the budget in accordance with the law.
Lo urged the Lai administration to fully allocate funds for military pay raises as well as for pension increases for retired police officers and firefighters, in line with bills passed by the opposition parties last year.
The Cabinet has declined to earmark funds for the raises and has sought constitutional interpretations of the bills, which are still pending.
Lawmakers from the two opposition parties also blocked a proposed NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget unveiled by Lai on Nov. 26 last year. It was the sixth time opposition lawmakers had voted against the special budget.
The opposition has demanded that Lai brief the legislature on the special budget and respond to lawmakers’ questions before any review of the spending plan begins.
The TPP also criticized the proposal, saying that amid delays in the delivery of US-ordered weapons, it is unreasonable to expect opposition backing for what it described as an “opaque” defense spending plan that does not clearly specify funded items.
The Executive Yuan yesterday criticized the latest blocking as “a waste of precious time” for national defense and an unnecessary drain on the public’s time, saying it hinders the government’s ability to care for the public, develop local infrastructure and advance artificial intelligence technology.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) called on all affected local governments nationwide to urge their district legislators to set aside unnecessary political calculations, and conduct substantive reviews of the general budget and the special national defense budget so that local development could be more balanced, national defense capabilities further strengthened and overall national progress advanced.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS