TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The interior minister on Monday (Jan. 20) emphasized the critical nature of maintaining full funding for police, fire, aviation, and immigration services as the Legislative Yuan (立法院) prepares to debate the 2025 central government budget. Liu warned that any cuts would severely impact essential services that operate continuously.
The Legislative Yuan will address the budget proposal over two days, Monday and Tuesday, amid expected intense voting battles. Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) led a press conference urging the Legislative Yuan to conduct a rational budget review. Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) highlighted that, although the budget freeze for some services was reduced from 70% to 30%, these sectors remain indispensable and cannot afford cuts.
Liu noted the high public satisfaction with police, fire services, and housing subsidies despite facing the most significant budget cuts. He stressed that travel and training costs for police, fire, immigration, and aviation services are crucial for executing cross-border operations and are not leisure expenses. The Legislative Yuan has already cut the national land planning budget by 10% and frozen another 10%, which Liu said would severely undermine housing justice.
Liu urged against demoralizing civil servants, warning that such budget cuts could destabilize the nation's social security foundation. He also mentioned that the Internal Administration Committee (內政委員會) has communicated about the budget, but party factions have not engaged in dialogue.