The Executive Yuan plans to propose a national defense budget of about NT$630 billion (US$19.18 billion) for the next fiscal year, which is about 5 percent higher than this year, an official familiar with the issue said yesterday.
Despite the unprecedented increase in the budget, it still accounts for less than 3 percent of the nation’s GDP.
After Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) held an annual projects and budgets review meeting for the 2025 fiscal year on Sunday, local media reported that the total annual budget expenditure is to be nearly NT$3 trillion and total annual budget revenues about NT$2.8 trillion.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The national defense budget is said to be about NT$460 billion, and with special budgets and special funds, it would total about NT$630 billion.
The total budget has not yet been finalized and the principle is “to make both ends meet,” so if total annual budget expenditure exceeds NT$3 trillion, total annual budget revenues would not be far from it, the official said.
The government does not wish to have excessive debt, so projected expenditures would be adjusted after carefully considering expected revenues, they said.
The budgets are scheduled to be further discussed and approved at a meeting of the Executive Yuan in the middle of next month, so there would be more concrete and detailed plans by then, they added.
The Executive Yuan on Sunday said the compilation of the central government general budget for the 2025 fiscal year would follow the new government’s administrative policies, and ministries would draft policies and projects and allocate budgets accordingly.
The budgetary compilation would also proceed under the premise of fiscal discipline and taking into account moderate growth of expenditures and revenues, it said.
The Executive Yuan also said that not including the special budget for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, the budget for improving public infrastructure would see the highest increase, and that hopefully it would improve road traffic and pedestrian safety, and increase the adoption of electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, there would also be increased expenditure on science and technology development, grants from the central government to local governments and social welfare programs, it said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS