Lawmakers' holding up of 2025 budget bills 'regrettable': Premier

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) described lawmakers' decision to send the 2025 central government budget bills back to the Legislative Yuan's Procedure Committee on Friday as "regrettable."

The decision means the budget bills did not reach their first reading, which is required before they can be sent to the respective legislative committees for further review. Now, it is up to the Procedure Committee to determine whether the bills will be taken to a full session again.

During the Friday's session, the first day of the new legislative session, independent Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei (高金素梅) proposed sending the central government budget bills for the fiscal year of 2025 back to the Procedure Committee.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party, which together hold more than half of the 113 seats in the Legislature, backed Kao Chin's proposal, and 59 of the 105 lawmakers 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 estimated total tax revenue and other proceeds of NT$3.15 trillion.

The difference between the proposed total spending and expected revenue, which is about NT$178.9 billion, will be made up through borrowing, according to the Executive Yuan.

Following the vote on Friday, Cho began delivering a report on government administration and the formulation of the budget, before going off script and criticizing 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) also said in a message sent to reporters that government agencies will continue communication and discussion with the Legislature, in the spirit of sincerity and an attitude to ensure stability and accountability.

Lee said that the government agencies would explain to the public, so the review of the budget bills would begin with rational discussion, allowing the administration to implement policies, such as expanding social welfare and medicine and maintaining national defense as well as social security.

In a statement, the KMT legislative caucus said that 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 relevant resolution passed by the Legislature on July 16 to raise the price for the government's acquisition of public food stock, currently NT$26 per kilogram, by at least NT$5 per kilogram.

Also, the Legislature amended the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act on June 4, raising the annual compensation from NT$30,000 per hectare to NT$60,000 per hectare in 2025, which should increase the budget set aside for the 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 2025 budget, which is below the estimated amount of money needed under the amended law, the KMT caucus said.

The KMT caucus also questioned the large amount of money the government pours into the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. for its heavy losses caused by maintaining the policy rates set by a Ministry of Economic Affairs electricity tariff review board.

In the 2025 budget, NT$100 billion is prepared to support the power company's finance.

The surge in the government's advertising, marketing, or communications expenditure budgeted to promote policies, programs, or projects to the domestic audience is inflated, the KMT caucus argued, citing these issues as their reason to demand the Executive Yuan to revise the proposed budget bills before sending them to the Legislature.