Cabinet seeks additional NT$87.84 billion for gov't spending

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) The Executive Yuan on Thursday said it would request legislative approval for an additional NT$87.84 billion (US$2.92 billion) in government spending for the 2025 fiscal year.

At a Cabinet news briefing in Taipei, Hsu Yung-yi (許永議), a senior official at the Executive Yuan's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), said the extra spending request stemmed from the Legislature's cut to the 2025 central government's general budget.

The government says the 6.6 percent reduction, or an estimated NT$207.6 billion, to the 2025 budget ordered by the opposition-controlled Legislature in January has impacted the operations of its various agencies.

However, most of the proposed NT$87.84 billion in additional funding would not restore those cuts to the affected agencies, but would instead be allocated to local governments, which would receive a total of NT$63.6 billion.

The Cabinet had earlier canceled NT$63.6 billion in "subsidies" for local governments after the Legislature revised the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures late last year, requiring the central government to give a greater share of its tax revenues to local authorities.

Under the act, the central government must redistribute part of its annual tax revenues to local governments and may grant them additional subsidies for development projects.

Apart from the NT$63.6 billion, the Cabinet's request includes NT$5.95 billion for increased nonsalary allowances for military personnel -- a new policy introduced in April -- and NT$2.37 billion to compensate Indigenous people for a logging ban.

Additionally, approximately NT$1.54 billion is sought to fund 31 recall votes targeting opposition Kuomintang lawmakers, and a national referendum on nuclear power proposed by the Taiwan People's Party.

It remains unclear whether the Legislature will approve the Cabinet's request, given that the same body passed the budget cuts earlier this year.

If approved, the central government's budget for 2025 would increase from NT$2.92 trillion to NT$3.01 trillion, DGBAS data showed.

Hsu, from the DGBAS, added that the extra spending request would not increase government debt, as 2025 tax revenues are estimated at NT$3.16 trillion.