Premier vows to seek remedies over military pay raise bill

Taipei, June 12 (CNA) Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said Thursday that the Executive Yuan will pursue appropriate administrative remedies against what he called a unconstitutional and illegal bill raising volunteer soldiers' monthly allowance to NT$30,000 (US$1,016) recently passed by the Legislature, according to a Cabinet spokesperson.

The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan on Tuesday passed an amendment to Article 5 of the Pay Act of the Armed Forces raising volunteer soldiers' monthly allowance to NT$30,000, an increase of over NT$15,000, along with other benefits, proposed by the main opposition Kuomintang.

Under the amendment, the monthly allowance will be granted to all volunteer military personnel, regardless of rank, effective Jan. 1, 2026.

At a regular Cabinet meeting Thursday, Cho emphasized that Taiwan began implementing an across-the-board pay raise for military personnel on April 1.

He said that the recently passed bill contravenes Article 70 of the Constitution which stipulates that the Legislative Yuan shall not make proposals for an increase in expenditures in budgetary bills presented by the Executive Yuan, according to Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) during a news briefing after the meeting.

Cho also said the bill contravenes Article 91 of the Budget Act and Article 5 of the Fiscal Discipline Act, which outline that if a legislative proposal significantly increases annual expenditures or decreases annual revenues, legislators must consult with the Executive Yuan and specify funding sources for the increase, according to Lee.

The premier criticized the repeated bypassing of the requirement to consult with the Cabinet as not only unconstitutional and illegal but also harmful to the structure and capacity of government finances, Lee added.

As such, Lee cited Cho as saying that the Executive Yuan will pursue appropriate administrative remedies to address the matter in the future.

According to Lee, Cho further stated that if the Legislature truly supports national defense and homeland security resilience, it should immediately unfreeze all of the Ministry of National Defense's budget and back a draft bill proposed by the Cabinet aimed at strengthening economic, social and home security resilience.

"It should not just approve raises for the military while refusing to finance equipment upgrades or other security resilience measures," Cho was cited as saying.