Legislature still unable to break government budget impasse

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) There is still no end in sight for a standoff at the Legislature over a Cabinet-proposed central government budget plan for the fiscal year 2025, after inter-party negotiations Thursday again failed to produce an agreement.

Despite the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) making concessions during the 90-minute negotiations, it was not enough to satiate lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP).

In a bid to break the deadlock, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT then decided to hold another inter-party meeting on Oct. 21.

The NT$3.33 trillion (US$104.2 billion) proposal presented by the Cabinet has yet to pass its first reading, a necessary step for it to be sent to various legislative committees for careful deliberation.

KMT and TPP lawmakers, who together form a majority in the 113-seat Legislature, have blocked the plan since the new legislative session began on Sept. 20 because it fails to earmark funds incurred as a result of an amended law and resolutions adopted earlier this year in the Legislature.

They have demanded the Cabinet revise the budget plan and resubmit it to the Legislature.

On the other hand, the DPP lawmakers criticized the opposition lawmakers as abusing their power, arguing they should not meddle with the executive body's budget planning in such a way.

At Thursday's negotiations, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) proposed to revise the budget plan and raise annual compensation for a logging ban from the current NT$30,000 to NT$40,000 per hectare in 2025, with subsequent compensation adjusted in line with the growth rate of the consumer price index.

His proposal would still fall short of the NT$60,000 required by amendments to the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act pushed through by the opposition in June.

But he argued that doubling the logging ban compensation all at once -- which would mean increasing the budget allocated to the compensation from the planned NT$2.1 billion per year to NT$4.2 billion -- was not feasible.

Ker added that the DPP hoped to resolve the budget deadlock but also warned of the possibility of the party bringing the disputes to the Constitutional Court.

His proposal was not accepted by the opposition, however, with KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) also criticizing the DPP for not coming up with solutions to other disputes.

Fu was referring to those concerning the resolutions passed by the opposition to hike the price for government acquisition of public food stocks and government reimbursements for medical facilities.

The Cabinet's current budget proposal, according to the opposition, fails to cover those costs.