Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said his caucus would propose legislation in the next session that aims to penalize officials who lie.
Lo made the remark after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) denounced opposition parties for cutting and freezing the central government’s total budget.
KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers cut NT$93.98 billion (US$2.9 billion) from the central government’s general budget on Friday.
Photo: CNA
The legislature continued its budget review yesterday and today, and was projected to cut another NT$100 billion at least.
As agencies under the Cabinet have been claiming that the budget cut would affect social welfare, the KMT caucus would propose bills to introduce an “honest government act and lying offenses for officials,” Lo said.
“The DPP should explore the example of [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk. When [US president-elect] Donald Trump proposed the Department of Government Efficiency to restructure the government, he [Musk] proposed a US$2 trillion cut in budget. Has the US been destroyed?” he said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
In the past, former president “Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the budget cut should be 20 percent. A budget cut of 10 percent cannot make the government change; a cut of 20 percent can transform its structure,” he added.
The corruption case of Ultra Source’s (超思) egg imports squandered NT$500 million from the national treasury, while corruption in the Tainan solar energy project and Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) deficit cost the government at least NT$10 billion and NT$100 billion respectively, Lo said.
“The opposition parties strive to safeguard people’s wallets. How can we paralyze the government with just a 3 percent budget cut?” he said, adding that the government was spreading rumors and that officials were lying, because they would not be penalized.
“Although Constitutional justices protect the right of governmental officials to lie at the legislature, they do not ensure their right to lie about political affairs. We are exploring the possibility of proposing the legislation of the honest government act and lying offenses for officials in the next legislative session. Let the public decide whether the officials are spreading rumors and lying,” Lo said.
Separately yesterday, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said it is lawmakers’ duty to review the budget and cut inefficient or inappropriately listed budget items.
The DPP government has long exploited budget items such as “operating expenses” and “media propaganda expenses” to fund “cyberwarriors,” wasting public funds without producing benefits, Lin said.
The KMT caucus strengthened its legislative supervision by freezing the budget, which is not equivalent to removing the budget, he said.
Agencies only have to report to the legislature on progress when a certain part of the budget has been spent, to ensure that taxpayers’ money were used to improve people’s livelihoods, instead of being used for political manipulation, Lin said.
The opposition’s budget cut proposals are not final, so ministries and departments should be more proactive in communicating and explaining their budget plans, he added.
TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday said the central government’s total budget for this year reached a new high of NT$3.2 trillion.
The TPP caucus reviewed the budget and proposed a total cut of slightly more than NT$100 billion and denied the NT$100 billion budget to subsidize Taipower’s deficit, he said.
With these cuts, the Cabinet still has a budget of NT$2.9 billion, but Cho chose to incite the public by circulating biased information through administrative departments and state-level cyberwarriors instead of facing and solving the problem, Huang said.
If Cho is so incompetent that he does not know how to do his job with NT$2.9 billion in his hands, he should resign as premier instead of polarizing society and causing conflicts, he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
RSS