The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) clashed yesterday over how to fund weapons systems excluded from a supplementary budget bill, after the Cabinet said it was considering three options to pay for the equipment.
The legislature last week passed an opposition-backed supplementary defense budget bill with a spending cap of NT$780 billion (US$24.7 billion) to fund weapons approved for sale to Taiwan by the US, excluding domestic contract production programs and foreign direct commercial sales.
Weapons excluded from the bill included drones, uncrewed surface vessels, counterdrone systems, anti-ballistic missiles, and Taiwan Tactical Network and Team Awareness Kit systems — equipment intended to help the armed forces build a common operational picture.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Thursday said that the Cabinet is considering submitting another supplementary budget bill, increasing the general budget for next year, or raising the Ministry of National Defense’s budget for this fiscal year.
DPP caucus chief executive Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said his caucus welcomed the plans.
However, he said that this year’s fiscal general budget is still under review, and any increase can only be proposed after the budget is passed.
Chuang said that while Taiwan’s economy could support a larger general budget, neither that nor a defense budget increase would be a “normal” way to fund weapons originally included in the supplementary budget.
“The opposition parties teamed up to cut the budget, and now the government has to deal with the consequences,” Chuang said. “This is not how oversight should work … the Legislative Yuan’s job is to prevent wasteful spending. Political parties should leave their rivalry out of this.”
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi said that the Cabinet should fund the weapons through to next year’s general budget.
The Cabinet is to submit its general budget proposal for the next fiscal year at the end of August, and funding for the weapons should be included, Fu said.
He added that some of the domestic contract production programs included in the supplementary budget would run for up to 10 years, and should therefore not be funded through a supplementary budget, which he said should only be used when war is imminent or after a major natural disaster.
“The KMT caucus supports national defense and safeguarding the Republic of China,” Fu said. “We want to provide the military with the best equipment, but we hope this will happen through a general budget proposal by the Executive Yuan that can stand up to public scrutiny.”
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