With the legislature due to open on Sept. 13, the Democratic Progres-sive Party (DPP) legislative caucus and the Executive Yuan reached a consensus yesterday to make the arms-procurement budget as well as 17 other bills priority bills for the next session.
"All 18 priority bills are important, urgent and meet the public's expectations," DPP caucus whip William Lai (
The 18 bills include the flood-control bill, draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan (
The Executive Yuan also sent copies of next year's policy plan and annual budget to the legislature yesterday.
The executive branch is planning to continue the six-year "challenge 2008" national development plan and the new 10 major construction projects, which are aimed at building the country into a democratic and prosperous society and making the nation the most competitive in Asia.
To that end, the government will focus on six main areas, including resuming cross-strait dialogue, popularizing civil diplomacy and consolidating national peace and security; and continuing its restructuring efforts to establish a clean and efficient government.
The Executive Yuan estimated next year's annual revenues will be NT$1.4 trillion, while annual expenditures will be NT$1.5 trillion.
The projected expenditures represents a 0.5 percent decrease compared with this year, while the annual income is 5.3 percent more than this year.
Of the projected expenditure, NT$323 billion, or 20.2 percent of the total, is earmarked for educational, cultural and scientific purposes. Social welfare spending accounts for 18.5 percent, or NT$296 billion, while national defense expenditures amount to 15.9 percent, or NT$253 billion -- a 1.6 percent increase over this year's spending.
In other news, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses voiced support yesterday for a proposed minimum tax scheme, scheduled to be approved by the Cabinet today.
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
TSU caucus whip David Huang (
The Executive Yuan and DPP caucus on Monday agreed on the terms for a minimum tax scheme: a 10 percent tax on industries and 20 percent tax on individuals.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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