Cabinet to ask for budget plan, revenue allocation revotes

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) The Executive Yuan will ask lawmakers to hold revotes on the recently passed central government budget plan and measures raising funding allocations to local governments, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said Thursday.

At a news conference, Cho said the Cabinet's requests for legislative revotes, pending President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) approval, were made in accordance with the Constitution.

The NT$207.6 billion (US$6.32 billion) cuts ordered by the Legislature to the budget plan for the fiscal year 2025, for which the Cabinet had originally earmarked NT$3.1 trillion, are "historically high," Cho said.

He added that opposition party lawmakers' substantial reductions targeted specific government agencies or specific purposes, such as the Control Yuan or expenditure on policy promotions.

In addition, the Legislature has frozen more than NT$138.1 billion of the total budget, Cho said, adding that these budget cuts and freezes had left affected agencies facing "great operational difficulties."

According to past practices, the relevant government agencies will not be able to access the frozen funds until they complete specific tasks requested by lawmakers and brief them about the outcomes.

As per Article 3-2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, the executive body may -- with the president's approval -- request a legislative revote on legislation lawmakers have passed, if it considers such a law "difficult to implement."

Over the past nine months, the Cabinet has requested three other ultimately futile revotes to overturn legislation passed by the current Legislature, where the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP) hold a majority.

In response to media questions about what the Cabinet would do if KMT and TPP lawmakers voted to uphold the budget plan they passed on Jan. 21, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) declined to discuss the matter further.

KMT Legislative Caucus Deputy Secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said later the same day that the Cabinet's latest bid was "doomed to fail."

The Cabinet on Thursday also requested a legislative revote on the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures.

The amendments, which cleared the Legislature on Dec. 20, 2024, include measures requiring the central government to allocate 40 percent of the nation's total tax or other revenue while retaining the remaining 60 percent -- reversing the 25-75 percent ratio that has been in place since 1999.

At the press event, the premier said the measures were "unfair" because they gave local governments more funding without assigning them additional public spending responsibilities.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the measures will transfer approximately NT$375.3 billion in recurring revenue from the central government to local governments.

Cho said the Cabinet had been negotiating with local government representatives in recent months for ways to share more revenue, but the Legislature's preemptive revisions disrupted the discussions.

The Cabinet was notified of the passage of the 2025 budget plan and amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures on Feb. 19.