Premier to face Legislature before budget, revenue allocation revotes

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Ruling and opposition party lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to invite Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to report to the Legislature before proceeding with revotes on the recently passed central government budget plan and measures raising funding allocations to local governments.

However, after approximately an hour and a half of inter-party negotiations, no agreement was reached on when Cho's report to the Legislature and the subsequent revotes, requested by the Cabinet at the end of February, should take place.

As a result, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), who called Wednesday's meeting, said that the issues would be left to the legislative floor for further deliberation, as soon as Friday.

The revotes were requested by the Cabinet in a bid to overturn the government budget plan for the fiscal year 2025 and revisions to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures.

The Democratic Progressives Party (DPP) administration has said the NT$207.6 billion (US$6.32 billion) cuts ordered by the Legislature to the 2025 budget plan, for which the Cabinet had originally earmarked NT$3.1 trillion, have disrupted the normal operations of the affected agencies.

In addition, the funding freezes by the Legislature, estimated at NT$183.1 billion, are nine times higher than the average amount over the past three years, it added.

The Cabinet has also requested a legislative revote on the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, arguing the measures gave local governments more funding without assigning them additional public spending responsibilities.

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.

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 KMT and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP) hold a majority.