Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) described a decision by lawmakers to send the central government budget for fiscal year 2025 bills back to the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee on Friday as “regrettable.”
The decision means the budget bills did not go through their first reading, which is required before they can be sent to the respective legislative committees for further review. The Procedure Committee would now have to determine whether the bills would be sent to a full session again.
During Friday’s session, the first day of the new legislative session, independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) proposed that the central government budget bills for the fiscal year of 2025 be sent back to the Procedure Committee.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party, who have a combined majority in the 113-seat legislature, backed Chin’s proposal, and 59 of the 105 lawmakers present voted in favor of the motion.
However, the main focus of the ongoing legislative session is to pass the government budget for the following year by the end of December.
The proposed central government budget for the fiscal year 2025 covers record-high spending of NT$3.33 trillion (US$104 billion) and estimates total tax revenue and other proceeds to be NT$3.15 trillion.
The difference between the proposed total spending and expected revenue, which is about NT$178.9 billion, would be made up through borrowing, the Executive Yuan said.
Following the vote on Friday, Cho delivered a report on government administration and the formulation of the budget, but went off script and criticized the lawmakers’ actions.
“As long as we offer a proper explanation, [I believe] the legislature will understand,” the premier said.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that government agencies would continue to communicate with the legislature while maintaining stability and accountability.
Lee said the government agencies would explain to the public that the record budget allows the administration to implement policies to expand social welfare and medicine coverage, and maintain national defense and social security.
In a statement, the KMT caucus said the budget bills were sent back in protest because the administration ignored laws and resolutions passed by the legislature regarding the proposed budget.
The KMT caucus condemned the Ministry of Agriculture for failing to include in its budget a resolution passed by the legislature on July 16 to raise the price for the government’s acquisition of public food stock, which is currently NT$26 per kilogram, by at least NT$5 per kilogram.
The legislature also amended the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act (原住民保留地禁伐補償條例) on June 4, raising the annual compensation from NT$30,000 per hectare to NT$60,000 per hectare next year, which would increase the budget set aside for compensation from NT$2.1 billion per year to NT$4.2 billion per year.
However, the Council of Indigenous Peoples only lists NT$2.81 billion for compensation payments in its budget for fiscal year 2025, which is below the estimated amount needed under the amended law, the KMT caucus said.
It also questioned the large amount of money the government would allocate to the state-owned Taiwan Power Co to subsidize its heavy losses caused by maintaining policy rates set by a Ministry of Economic Affairs electricity tariff review board.
In the 2025 budget, NT$100 billion would be allocated to support the power company’s finances.
The increase in the government’s advertising, marketing and communications expenditure budget to promote policies, programs and projects to the public is too high, the KMT caucus said, citing these issues as why they demanded the Executive Yuan revise the proposed budget bills before sending them to the legislature.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and