The Legislative Yuan on Friday cut NT$93.98 billion (US$2.85 billion) from this year’s central government budget during its second-reading review at the Legislative Yuan.
In response, the Cabinet urged the opposition parties to “rein in from the edge of the precipice,” warning the massive cut would seriously affect the government’s efforts in pushing forward its policies.
Lawmakers from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) joined hands on the legislative floor to vote for a cut of NT$93.98 billion in the government’s general budget plan in which the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) had for this year proposed NT$3.15 trillion in revenue and NT$3.13 trillion in expenditure, a new high, which resulted in a surplus of NT$20.9 billion.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Previously, the KMT had proposed a cut of NT$111.1 billion in this year’s budget, but the opposition camp eventually agreed upon a smaller cut of NT$93.98 billion.
Lawmakers would tomorrow look into the budget concerning individual cases including a cut of NT$100 billion in subsidies for state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), which has incurred massive losses and needs the subsidies to improve its financial structure.
The Legislative Yuan has scheduled a full house vote for Tuesday to pass this year’s government budget.
The cut in the second reading on Friday accounted for about 3 percent of the DGBAS-proposed spending.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi said that even if the budget had been cut by NT$111.1 billion as initially proposed by his party, the reduction would make up about 3.47 percent of the DGBAS-proposed plan, a reduction similar to those in previous years.
The budget reduction includes a 10 percent cut in water and electricity bills and a 60 percent cut in special spending which is largely used by agency chiefs as rewards or relief for employees, while special spending in select agencies of the Cabinet, including the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, National Communications Commission, the Ministry of Labor as well as the Control Yuan were all deleted.
Spending on policy promotions to purchase advertisements from all government agencies was cut by 60 percent by the opposition parties on Friday.
Opposition lawmakers also added a requirement that no single media outlet could win bids that would make up more than 5 percent of the promotion spending of any government agency.
Lawmakers also added requirements that the top three media outlets winning policy promotion bids spending not top 10 percent of the particular budget of a government agency.
KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said the budget cut is appropriate because the DGBAS-proposed expenditure was almost NT$300 billion higher than last year.
However, Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the cut completely lacked transparency, as the move by the opposition parties failed to go through thorough discussions and negotiations.
The government budget is an important resource for the country’s development and such a reckless cut showed the hateful conduct by opposition lawmakers and they should be recalled, he said.
Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) in a statement said that the budget cut is irrational and would weaken the government’s operations, which need continuation.
Lee, who described the cut as a revenge-like move by the opposition parties, said the cut would prevent Taiwan from collaborating with other countries in critical fields such as technology development, human rights protection, and exchanges in culture, healthcare, sports and diplomacy, economic cooperation and gender equality.
If the opposition camp continues to push for such emotional cuts, the Executive Yuan would seek redress under the law, she said.
According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, if the Executive Yuan deem a statutory, budgetary or treaty bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, the Executive Yuan may, with the approval of the president within 10 days of the bill’s submission to the Executive Yuan, request the Legislative Yuan to reconsider the bill.
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