Rival drone procurement bills advance to committee review

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan on Friday referred four competing bills on procuring domestically produced drones to committee review, setting up a battle that will focus mainly on how the government should fund its purchase of drones.

The bills, backed by the Cabinet, the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), the smaller opposition Taiwan People's Party (TPP), and ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chu-yin (林楚茵), will now undergo a joint review by the Finance, Economics, and Foreign Affairs and National Defense committees.

• Opposition parties unveil rival drone procurement bills

The Cabinet proposed its bill in June after the opposition parties removed funding for domestic drone purchases from an omnibus NT$1.25 trillion (US$39 billion) special defense budget bill the Cabinet had proposed earlier in the year.

The KMT and TPP, which hold a combined majority in the Legislature, instead passed an alternative version of the special budget bill with a spending cap of NT$780 billion that was aimed solely at the purchase of U.S. weapons.

The Cabinet's drone procurement bill and Lin's bill are identical in their push for a six-year NT$210 billion special budget to buy drones.

The only difference between the two is an explicit section in Lin's bill tying the legislation to the opposition's removal of NT$470 billion from the Cabinet's omnibus bill and saying that it hampered Taiwan's efforts to build asymmetric capabilities.

The KMT's bill would allocate NT$240 billion through the general budget over six years while the TPP's version does not have a spending cap but would require funding to also come through annual appropriations from the general budget.

According to the TPP's bill, the government would also be required to devise unmanned aerial vehicle development guidelines every four years and review them every two years.

The main fault line between the ruling and opposition party bills is the source of funding.

The Ministry of National Defense and the DPP have argued that using a special budget, which is considered on its own outside the general budget process and is designated for specific purposes, would ensure stable funding.

That would enable the ministry to place large, long-term orders with domestic defense companies while supporting innovation to keep pace with rapidly evolving drone technology.

The opposition parties have argued, however, that funding drone procurement through the general budget would reduce corruption risks and uphold fiscal discipline.

The size of the budget will also be a negotiating point. Despite its stated concern over corruption risks and fiscal discipline, the KMT actually proposed a bill with a higher spending cap than the DPP's bill, but it did not explain why.