The Study of Public Debt Act
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Lin, Sin-Ting
Abstract
The control of public debt is very important in financial management. In recent decades, countries around the world gradually developed relevant laws and policies to enhance debt management. “Public Debt Act,” is the regulation concerning public debt of the central and local government, stipulates that all levels of government debt ceiling, regardless of the total debt or debt flows are included in the scope of control of this Law.
This thesis begin with a literature review on the historical evolution of the Public Debt Act and the connotation of public debt, including the background and evolution of legislative amendments, as well as the definition of public debt and measurement. Referring to the IMF, the OECD and other international organizations, as well as the experience of the United States, the Great Britain, Germany and other advanced countries, this thesis further explores the connotation of the similarities and differences between Taiwan and the international public debt, and hopes to gain more knowledge via the international trend. Furthermore, this thesis also explores the meaning of the numerator and denominator in the debt ceiling, central and local government debt limit distribution, as well as regulations mandatory, and thus the understanding of the Public Debt Act applies to the case at all levels of government in Taiwan, and the future course corrections.
The results of this study finds that the scope of the Public Debt Act in Taiwan is not included in contingent liabilities, in public enterprises liabilities, and in ju xin zhai huan jiu zha (cite the new debt subordinate the old debt), and the above practices are in line with the IMF, OECD and EU. Under the Public Debt Act, debts divided into more than one year of non-self-liquidating debt and debt of less than one year. However, for the calculation of government debt does not distinguish between long and short-term debt and debt whether self-liquidating internatinally. According to the definition of public debt, Public Debt Act is not included in the “hidden debt” with the self-liquidating debt and borrows of non-operating fund of the debt, which in this section is inconsistent with international practice. This study suggests that the definition of debt should be clearly and exhaustively specified, with reference to the International Computing, not only in line with international trends, but also to improve the transparency of government debt and budget, to make the value of debt more objective, to avoid causing government debt assessment biased, to avoid misleading the public awareness and hindering the state''s financial soundness and economic development.
On 2nd March 2012, the 25 EU members signed the new Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG). On deficit-rules, it requires participating countries to respect “the golden rule”, defined as limiting the annual structural deficit of the general government to below 0.5 percent of GDP. On debt-rule, it requires its members to incorporate into their national legal system an obligation to cut 5 percent of that part of their public debt which is exceeding 60 percent of the GDP annually. Setting “the medium term objective” (MTO) is the main trends of the reform of the national debt measures. Whether it can be effective in the future, depends on the mechanism of supervision and punishment can be implemented or not.
March 28th, 2012, the Ministry of Finance of R.O.C, by reference to the views of all parties, re-drafted of the Public Debt Act amendment and looked forward to the new version of the Public Debt Act to get the ruling and opposition parties to support. Before the adoption of the amendment and supporting measures of the Public Debt Act, the municipalities after the reform of the issues arising from the new version of the Public Debt Act failed to pass, the Ministry of Finance resolution of provisional application of the original municipalities, counties (cities) of the debt limit. After the reform, local governments of municipalities, counties and cities should cut costs and improve fiscal discipline, which is the fundamental key to solve the financial problems of local government.
Subjects
Public Debt Act
debt ceiling
contingent liabilities
structural deficit
hidden debt
self-liquidating
Type
thesis
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