The long-stalled budget for the partial funding of a US arms procurement deal passed the legislature yesterday, about six years after the weapons sale was approved by the Bush administration in April 2001.
The funding was sourced from the defense ministry's annual budget included in the Cabinet's total budget request for the current fiscal year, which also cleared the legislature yesterday.
On the last day before the legislature adjourned for its summer recess yesterday, lawmakers finally finished their review of the central government's budget bill, more than half a year behind the deadline set by the Budget Act (
The arms package offered by the US includes 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, eight diesel-electric submarines and six PAC-3 anti-missile batteries.
The government's proposal to buy the three major weapons systems for NT$610.8 billion (US$18.5 billion) was sent to the legislature for review in June 2004 in the form of a special budget, but had been blocked by the pan-blues ever since.
The pan-blue camp argued that the price was too high and insisted that the package had to be included in the annual military budget rather than a special budget.
After a series of revisions, the arms proposal took the form of a NT$6.2 billion supplemental budget for fiscal 2006 and a NT$54.7 billion annual budget item for fiscal 2007.
The NT$6.2 billion supplementary budget is still stalled in the legislature, while the NT$54.7 billion allocation from the annual budget was cut to NT$25.7 billion yesterday.
Part of the budget passed yesterday would fund an upgrade plan for PAC-2 Patriot Missile Batteries and the purchase of P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
Meanwhile, the budget to assess the feasibility of the submarine purchase was slashed from NT$4.537 billion to NT$200 million, while that for buying F16 C-D fighters was passed but frozen.
The legislature demanded that the defense ministry brief the legislature on the US proposal to sell Taiwan the F16 fighters by the end of October.
The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus proposed a motion to cut all funding for the three weapons systems, but the motion failed in the absence of support from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Lawmakers slashed the government's annual revenue budget by NT$24.63 billion from NT$1.51 trillion, and reduced the budget for government expenses by NT$34.41 billion from NT$1.66 trillion.
The budget bill was referred to the legislature last September, but the Cabinet was unable to pass it because of a controversial bill the KMT had proposed to restructure the Central Election Commission (CEC).
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has criticized the KMT for holding up the budget bill in a bid to get the DPP to agree to the KMT's CEC proposal, which would give the pan-blue camp the majority of seats.
The Budget Act states that the legislature should complete its review of the central government budget bill one month before the start of the fiscal year.
The KMT caucus only agreed to decouple the CEC bill from the budget after KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
After failing to have its CEC proposal passed in the current legislative session, the pan-blue camp yesterday voted to pass a resolution to freeze one-quarter of the budget earmarked for the CEC, excluding its personnel costs.
The resolution says the budget will not be released until a bill to legalize the commission has been enacted and members selected.
KMT legislative caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (
The DPP is considering calling for an extra session to screen two government budget requests that remain stalled: the NT$3.3 trillion budget for state-owned enterprises and governmental non-profit funds and the NT$77.3 billion budget for public construction projects.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS