Budget stalemate continues as opposition lawmakers block review

Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) The legislative review of the 2025 central government budget remained stalled Friday, with opposition lawmakers insisting the Cabinet revise its spending plan before allowing discussion to proceed.

During the Legislature's full session on Friday, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which collectively hold over half of the 113 seats, supported a motion to restrict the agenda to the original items.

Fifty-six of the 106 lawmakers in attendance voted in favor of the motion proposed by the TPP, effectively excluding the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus's proposal to include a review of the spending bill.

The bill, which had its review rejected for the third time since the new session of the Legislature began on Sept. 20, will be sent back to the Procedure Committee for further discussions next week.

In response to the development, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said the lawmakers' decision was "regrettable and frustrating."

According to the KMT and TPP, they stopped the bill from passing its first reading on the grounds that the budget plan finalized in mid-August does not cover funds required in an amended law or resolutions passed earlier.

Both parties have demanded the Cabinet submit a revised budget bill that addresses the expected rise in compensation due to the amended Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act, and other legislative resolutions, such as hiking the price for government acquisition of public food stocks.

For the logging issue, the opposition argues the Legislature amended the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act on June 4, raising annual compensation from NT$30,000 (US$936) per hectare to NT$60,000 per hectare in 2025, which should 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 2025 budget, which is below the estimated amount of money needed under the amended law, they said.

The Cabinet re-submitted the central government budget for review without making any of the changes called for by the opposition.

While KMT Legislator Sra Kacaw (鄭天財) suggested during the legislative session that Cho could introduce a supplementary budget to resolve the deadlock, Cho responded that such a solution is not feasible, as it would render national budget planning meaningless.

"If a proposal or law automatically leads to increased spending, it will hinder future budget planning, causing the budget to expand uncontrollably," Cho said.

The 2025 budget bill, under the current law, shall be approved by the Legislature one month before the new fiscal year begins on New Year's Day.

However, the review process has often concluded in the new year, as in the case of the 2022 and 2023 budgets which were passed in January.