The central government's budget bill for fiscal 2001 finally made its way onto the legislative agenda yesterday after the majority KMT decided to "conditionally" drop its effort to obstruct the bill's passage.
Legislators voted 129 to eight, with seven abstentions, to ratify a plan to invite Premier Tang Fei
The legislature's procedure committee has set this Friday as the date for presentation of the budget.
The interpellation session will follow immediately after the presentation and is expected to last two weeks, after which the budget bill will be referred to committees for review.
Presentation of the budget bill had been delayed for two weeks, largely due to opposition from the KMT caucus.
The KMT had refused to allow the presentation of the budget to proceed, saying the government had not cut costs by NT$510 billion as some Cabinet members had claimed they would.
KMT legislators had demanded that some Cabinet officials appear before the legislature to explain their cost-cutting promises and remarks insinuating that the former KMT government had been wasteful and corrupt.
In addition to Lin Chuan, KMT legislators also wanted to hear from Chen Ding-nan (
Reporting to the KMT caucus on Monday, the four officials admitted that their remarks were not based on accurate calculations and that they had not meant to criticize the KMT.
The KMT caucus agreed to let the issue slide, though a few members, led by Chen Ching-pao (
Despite opposition from Chen Ching-pao and seven other legislators, a majority of legislators voted yesterday to give the green light to the presentation of the budget bill.
Lu Shiow-yen (
"We are glad to see the budget bill enter the legislative agenda. Through the opposition of a small minority, we hope to remind the government officials to mind their words in the future," Lu said.
Lu said another reason behind the move was to show the legislators' disapproval of the "careless" and "inaccurate" way in which the budget bills were drafted.
Wong Chung-chun
Wong said Premier Tang should promise to take steps to make the spending plan more transparent, included completing the allocation of NT$9.4 billion in tax revenues for local governments and providing detailed allocation criteria for a NT$97 billion subsidy fund for local governments.
The government, ruled by the DPP, which is a minority party in the Legislative Yuan, had two previous versions of its fiscal budget for next year rejected last week.
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