TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Cabinet’s finance director said the government could use its surplus from past budgets to increase defense spending to levels promised by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), while borrowing is also an option.

Opposition TPP Legislator Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) asked how the government would fund Lai’s plan to increase defense spending to over 3% of GDP during a question session in the legislature on Monday, per Mnews. Huang noted that the 2024 defense budget was about NT$600 billion (US$18.16 billion), and increasing it to 3% of GDP would require about NT$100 billion more.  

Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chen Shu-tzu (陳淑姿) said the government had about NT$200 billion in surplus funds, including NT$15.8 billion accumulated in 2024. She said this could be used to fund the increases first.

“Generally, we hope we will not need to borrow,” Chen said. “But if we have to borrow, we ought to borrow, because national defense spending is very important,” she said.  

After a national security meeting in February, Lai committed to increasing defense spending to 3% of GDP. He said defense spending would exceed 3% of GDP at an AmCham event on Friday.

Lai’s commitment followed wide-ranging spending cuts passed by opposition legislators, including to the defense budget. Many officials expressed national security concerns over the cuts, which were echoed in Washington, D.C.