Legislature passes 2026 budget after record delay, drone budget intact

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislature passed the central government's 2026 budget Friday, approving NT$2.9869 trillion (US$93 billion) in spending -- including NT$63.4 billion in drone-related spending -- after a record 266-day delay.

The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan voted to reduce the originally proposed expenditure of NT$3.034 trillion by NT$48 billion.

The NT$63.4 billion budget for drone industry development and procurement passed without cuts, despite earlier threats by the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to reduce the funding by 70 percent.

In a statement issued Friday, the KMT caucus said it decided against the cuts after determining there was no overlap between the drone development and procurement programs that would result in wasteful spending, which it had previously cited as the basis for the proposed cuts.

The Cabinet submitted the budget bill to the Legislative Yuan on Aug. 31, 2025. Review of the proposal was delayed by prolonged political deadlock despite a statutory deadline requiring passage by the end of November 2025, making it the latest central government budget to clear the Legislature in Taiwan's history.

Before the budget was approved, the government had been operating under a provisional budget mechanism that allowed it to continue paying civil servants, providing social welfare benefits and funding existing projects through tax revenues and other available funds.

Among the approved reductions, lawmakers cut special allowances for heads of government agencies by 60 percent, with several agencies facing full cuts that cannot be reallocated.

Spending on military equipment and facilities was reduced by 2.5 percent, while media policy and publicity budgets were cut by 50 percent, except for expenditures required by law.

The Legislature began voting on the budget at around 4 p.m., completed the second reading at about 5:50 p.m. and gave final approval at 6:08 p.m.

After the vote, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said that the prolonged budget review had caused social division and a constitutional impasse, urging both the ruling and opposition camps to seek greater compromise in the future.

Following the approved reductions, total expenditure was provisionally set at NT$2.987 trillion, while projected revenue was increased by about NT$602 billion to NT$3.464 trillion. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics will make final adjustments to individual budget items.