Lawmakers yesterday disagreed loudly over procedural issues in the Legislative Assembly in relation to a law regulating the allocation of funds between central and local governments, leading to an impasse in the Finance Committee.

Opposition lawmakers shouted and held signs with the slogan “big central government, poor local governments”, while ruling party lawmakers responded and held signs suggesting there were “major flaws” in the legislative procedure following the previous management of the financing bill by the committee. .

The main opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), along with the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPT), have a majority in the legislature and are seeking to pass 22 amendments to the law governing the allocation of public revenue and expenditure (財政收).支劃分法) which is opposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Photo: ANC

The proposed amendments aim to increase the proportion of public revenue going to local authorities at the expense of central government. Under current legislation, the central government receives 75 percent of available funding, while local governments receive 25 percent of available funding.

The amendments, if passed, would also prevent the central government from reducing the amount of grants — not included in the 75-25 ratio currently regulated by law — that it currently gives to local authorities.

On November 6, KMT lawmaker Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), then chairman of the legislature’s finance committee, said the proposed amendments had passed the committee’s review stage and adjourned the meeting just three minutes after it started.

However, at the Finance Committee meeting held yesterday under the rotating chairmanship of DPP lawmaker Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員), the opposing camps clashed over how the draft amendments were handled last week.

“Last week’s bill review procedure seriously violated official regulations,” DPP lawmaker Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said at the meeting, referring to the law governing the Yuan’s power. (立法院職權行使法) and the internal regulations of the Legislative Yuan (立法院職權行使法).立法院議事規則). “We therefore believe that the completion (of the draft amendments in committee) should be considered invalid.”

Wu argued that the meeting minutes were “not recorded in accordance with the regulations”, suggesting that the minutes should not be confirmed.

“The DPP also made adjustments to the KMT’s version of the draft amendments,” Chen said.

“This has already been discussed. If you don’t know, don’t talk nonsense,” she added.

DPP caucus leader Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the disagreement over whether the draft amendments had passed the committee stage in accordance with regulations was a “major controversy” and called on Legislative Assembly Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to address the issue through a cross-cutting approach. party negotiations.

KMT deputies requested that the issue be put to a vote, while the DPP requested that officials from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) submit an oral report as scheduled.

As the confrontation continued, some lawmakers jostled to try to take control of the microphones to shout at members opposed to the meeting.

Lai eventually walked away and did not return, causing the remaining lawmakers to disperse around 5:30 p.m.

Without consensus within the committee on the legitimacy of the results of the last meeting, partisan gridlock is expected to continue over the coming days.