Opposition slashes government budget
The opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party slashed and froze by 7 per cent the 2025 budget proposed by President Lai Ching-te’s administration. The president who was elected last year does not have a majority in parliament. Military spending and subsidies to the country’s state-owned power company were the main targets. For Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai, the cuts are only meant to obstruct the government.
Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Taiwan’s budget was approved with a drastic 7 per cent cut, especially in defence spending and energy subsidies for consumers.
This followed a tug-of-war between the country’s cabinet and the opposition-dominated parliament (Legislative Yuan) in the long feud between the administration of President Lai Ching-te (who was elected last year) and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and parliament, which is dominated by the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP).
After months of discussions, the Legislative Yuan approved a budget for fiscal year 2025 of 2,920 billion Taiwanese dollars (US 89.15 billion dollars), 207.5 billion less than what the government had proposed in August.
At a press conference, Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai criticised the opposition KMT and TPP, calling the cuts "extremely absurd", designed only to interfere with government action.
The cuts include freezing half of the planned NT billion funding for Taiwan's fleet of indigenous defence submarines (IDS).
But the cuts with the greatest economic impact rare the reduction of NT0 billion in funding for state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower), which has sustained huge losses due to rising global oil prices and the government's reluctance to raise utility prices.
Prime Minister Cho slammed the move for its “"incalculable" impact since the funds subsidise energy costs for consumers.
Kuomintang caucus whip Fu Kun defended this cut, arguing that the DPP government is pursuing the “wrong energy policy,” undermining the public interest.
In a social media post this evening, President Lai Ching-te spoke out on the matter, criticising the budget cuts, which he said would "affect the fundamental functioning of the nation".
Lai added that he will ask the cabinet to identify public services that may be disrupted due to the cuts and report them to the public as soon as possible.
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23/01/2023 15:38
