TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus announced on Monday (Sept. 23) that it will respect the Cabinet’s budget allocation to compensate Indigenous people for logging bans, despite opposition parties rejecting the proposed budget due to concerns over inadequate funding.
The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted down the budget bills on Friday (Sept. 20), citing several issues, including the fact that only NT$2.81 billion (US$87.6 million) was earmarked for payments required under the Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act. The act, amended in June, increased the annual per hectare payments from NT$30,000 to NT$60,000 by 2025, necessitating a budget of around NT$4.2 billion.
Legislator Ciwas Ali (高金素梅), representing the highland Indigenous constituency, proposed rejecting the bill due to the funding shortfall, and the motion was passed by a majority of legislators.
DPP Secretary-General Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) addressed the issue on Monday, stating that the opposition’s decision to reject the budget was harming the broader public under the guise of helping Indigenous people, per CNA. She affirmed that the DPP caucus would respect the budgetary decisions made by the Cabinet.
Wu also noted that allocating this level of compensation would consume over 40% of the Council of Indigenous Peoples’ budget, potentially crowding out other initiatives intended to benefit Indigenous communities. The council previously indicated in August that the necessary funding for compensation might impact the Austronesian Forum, an international trade agreement, and its ability to complete a planned museum.
The DPP will continue to negotiate with other parties to move the budget forward, Wu said. To this end, she said the DPP caucus has called on the head of the legislature to convene government-opposition meetings.
Wu also said that the amendment to the act that requires increased funding may be unconstitutional. She noted an article of the constitution that prevents the legislature from proposing the Cabinet increase spending in government budgets.
TPP caucus leader Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) issued a statement on Sunday evening, saying the DPP should not label bills it opposes as unconstitutional. Chen said the DPP had a chance to review the bill when it was being discussed in the legislature.
Also on Sunday, the KMT caucus issued a statement, saying that as the majority party in the legislature, the decision to reject the budget was backed by public opinion.
The Logging Ban Compensation for Lands Reserved for Indigenous Peoples Act was passed in 2016 and provides compensation for Indigenous people who own or have legal access to land where logging is banned. According to the Council of Indigenous Peoples, total compensation paid out under the act had reached NT$12.47 billion by 2023.
