After failing to pass the central government’s budget request for this fiscal year by the end of the legislative session on Tuesday, the legislature resolved yesterday to hold a provisional plenary session today.
Legislators were expected to vote on 109 motions related to the budget proposal during a session scheduled for this afternoon, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday, adding that he would first invite the legislature’s three caucuses to discuss the agenda of the provisional session around noon.
The legislature was forced to convene a provisional session after legislators failed to approve the budget request after a four-hour marathon vote on 159 motions on Tuesday, after which it had planned to go into recess.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The central government is seeking NT$1.7 trillion (US$51.1 billion) in revenue and NT$1.82 trillion in expenditure for this fiscal year.
The legislature’s Finance Committee previously passed the preliminary review of the request, cutting the annual revenue request by NT$124 million and cutting the expenditure request by NT$3.96 billion.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators found the scale of the cut dissatisfying.
The DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have since submitted tit-for-tat motions related to the budget.
Wang said that although the legislature failed to pass the budget proposal by Tuesday, it proved that “the legislature was not controlled by a single political party.”
It was possible that legislators would also vote on a proposal by the DPP that the legislature reconsider the Act on Issuance and Management of Electronic Monetary Cards (電子票證發行管理條例), which cleared the legislative floor on Tuesday, Wang said.
Meanwhile, the KMT and the DPP caucuses pointed fingers at each other over the impasse.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) lambasted the DPP for “viciously boycotting” the review of the budget request.
“During the [negotiation], the DPP proposed its own scale for budget cuts. We tried to respect their opinions and modified [our proposals], but the DPP broke its promise and failed to complete the review of the budget proposal,” Lin said, referring to the DPP caucus’ decision to put 109 budget-related resolutions up for a vote. Only after those bills were voted on could the budget bill as a whole be considered.
As of midnight on Tuesday, 40 previously proposed budget resolutions had been decided, but the package of 109 resolutions had yet to be touched, making it impossible for a vote on the budget bill to take place before the session’s end.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the process, which was unlikely to change anything, was intended to demonstrate “how the KMT is using legislative violence to suppress the DPP,” as the DPP is in the minority.
Ker said his caucus supported holding a provisional session to deal with the budget bill.
Although the budget request remained stalled, the pan-blue-dominated legislature passed three additional resolutions late on Tuesday night, requiring that the Public Television Service, Hakka Television and Taiwan Macroview TV — a TV service aimed at overseas compatriots — report to the government before they could spend their budgets.
Legislators also approved an additional resolution that the Ministry of Education remove the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall plaque restore the former plaque as soon as possible.
These resolutions would not be carried out until the fiscal budget request is passed because they are included in the budget proposal as a package bill.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued yesterday, the DPP expressed regret that the legislature passed a controversial bill allowing gambling on offshore islands and an amendment to the Estate and Gift Tax Act, which the DPP argued would only benefit rich people.
The legislature also failed to amend the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) as well as pass several sunshine proposals promoted by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his presidential campaign.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS