Taiwan’s government is asking opposition lawmakers to reconsider their cuts to the 2025 budget. The Cabinet says the cuts could affect public services and its ability to fight Chinese propaganda. Opposition parties, which control the legislature, have already made cuts of US$2.85 billion, about 3% of the budget.
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00:00Taiwan's government says its spending plans for this year are at risk unless the opposition
00:06reverses its decision to cut US$2.85 billion from its budget. That's about 3% of what it
00:15wanted to spend.
00:17This is another illustration of the difficulties for Taiwan's government since elections last
00:22year saw two opposition parties take the majority in the legislature. Those parties, the Kuomintang
00:28and Taiwan People's Party, say the government has wasted money in the past and it's perfectly
00:33reasonable to cut the budget. But the government says this will make it hard for them to govern
00:39and could affect public services and their ability to counter Chinese propaganda.
00:58The opposition is still deliberating over hundreds of other potential cuts. One of the
01:16biggest is to subsidies to the loss-making power company that could affect Taiwan's heavily
01:22subsidised electricity bills. Those are the kinds of consequences that the public would
01:28soon start to notice.