Cabinet considers asking for Legislature revote on 2025 budget plan

Taipei, Jan. 23 (CNA) The Cabinet is considering asking the Legislature to hold a revote on the recently adopted central government general budget plan for the fiscal year 2025, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said Thursday, in a bid to reverse opposition-endorsed spending cuts.

At a news conference in Taipei, Cho said the Cabinet would seek "remedies" to overturn the NT$2.92 trillion (US$89.15 billion) budget plan passed by the Legislature on Tuesday.

The revised plan passed by the Legislature includes NT$207.6 billion of cuts to the Cabinet's original budget proposal, an approximately 6.6 percent reduction, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) under the Executive Yuan.

Asked about what such remedies would entail, the premier said requesting the Legislature hold a revote on a bill deemed difficult to implement is "the right and obligation of the Executive Yuan under Article 3 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution."

The opposition parties' substantial spending cuts and budget freezes will "paralyze government operations" and cause "immeasurable damage" to the nation, Cho said at the news conference -- his third on the matter since the Legislature began voting on budget downsizing proposals on Jan. 17.

The opposition's austerity measures include cutting NT$100 billion in aid for the state-owned Taiwan Power Co., which has sustained huge losses in recent years due to rising global oil prices and the government's hesitance to raise utility prices.

According to the DGBAS, the Legislature has also frozen an estimated NT$160.7 billion in funding for various government agencies, including nearly NT$90 billion for the Ministry of National Defense and roughly NT$16 billion for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Those ministries will not be able to access the frozen funds until they complete specific tasks requested by lawmakers and brief them about the outcomes.

The DGBAS data showed that both the budget cuts and freezes, driven mainly by lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), were exceptionally high compared to the past decade.

However, as of Thursday, the Legislature had not submitted the approved budget plan to the Executive Yuan, meaning the latter will likely have to wait until after the Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 Lunar New Year holiday to take its next steps.

As per Article 3 of the Constitution's additional articles, the Cabinet shall, with the approval of the president, request the reconsideration of lawmakers within 10 days of receiving the Legislature's notification if it finds "a statutory, budgetary, or treaty bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute."

If the Cabinet requests a revote, it will mark the third time it has done so in an attempt to overturn bills passed by the current Legislature.

The Cabinet's previous two attempts were unsuccessful, as the KMT and TPP, which hold a majority in the Legislature, upheld the bills they had jointly pushed through.