FISCAL 2019:Social welfare is to be the top expenditure, while defense spending is to increase, but not the 3% of GDP promised by President Tsai Ing-wen, sources said
Taipei Times
Date: Jul 22, 2018
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan’s annual expenditure for fiscal 2019 is expected to total NT$2
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming speaks at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei on March 29. Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
trillion (US$65.11 billion), with national defense spending increasing by 2.17 percent, or NT$7.1 billion, compared with fiscal 2018, sources said.
However, despite the increase, total defense spending will not reach President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) promised 3 percent of national GDP, they said.
Current defense spending is less than 2 percent of GDP, although funding for plans to build domestic missile attack boats and purchase M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks could be included, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said.
Tsai expects a gradual increase in national defense spending that is not lower than an average of the past three years’ total defense spending, Chu said.
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