Taiwan's central government general budget for this fiscal year passed its third reading a month ago but has still not taken effect, with the ruling and opposition parties blaming each other — bad news for members of the public waiting on subsidies.

• The Legislative Yuan passed the general budget on its third reading on August 14, but the outcome has yet to be transmitted to the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan, so the budget cannot take effect.
• The KMT caucus says this was a joint decision reached at cross-party negotiations convened by Legislative Yuan Speaker Han Kuo-yu on August 26, with all three parties agreeing to wait until parliamentary staff had finished the supplementary resolutions and proofread the figures before sending it.
• The KMT caucus accused the DPP of deliberately talking only about "people not getting their money," dressing up a normal legislative procedure as the opposition blocking the budget.
• At the heart of the dispute are the entitlements of 3.9 million people and the delayed timetable for disbursing subsidies.

Outlook: The budget is unlikely to be transmitted before the new legislative session opens on September 29 at the earliest, and political sparring between the parties is set to continue in the meantime.