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.
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