TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Legislative Yuan has sent four competing drone proposals from the government and the opposition to a joint committee for review.
The bills originated with the Cabinet, the KMT, the TPP, and DPP Legislator Lin Chu-yin (林楚茵). After Friday’s decision by the Legislative Yuan, the Foreign Affairs and National Defense, Finance, and Economics Committees will jointly review the four versions, the Liberty Times reported.
The Cabinet proposal includes a NT$210 billion (US$6.57 billion) budget to procure drones from Taiwanese manufacturers between August and 2031. The opposition parties first blocked the proposal while working on their own versions.
The KMT drone budget listed NT$240 billion over six years at the rate of NT$40 billion per year. The TPP version did not set a ceiling on drone spending, but both opposition proposals said spending should come from the general budget rather than a special budget, as proposed by the government.
The DPP said a special budget was necessary to guarantee the stability of the procurement process, per UDN. Otherwise, suppliers would face a legislative review of the budget each year, with fears of budget cuts imperiling long-term investment.
Plans for separate drone budgets emerged after the opposition removed money for the drones from the NT$780 billion special defense budget it approved in May. The government has since tried to make up for the KMT and TPP cuts by submitting separate budgets for items like drones.
