The Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization said Tuesday that the central government will allocate more resources to social welfare while reforming the current fiscal and tax systems to give greater authority to local administrations.

In its road map for fiscal and taxation policies, the committee also outlined five strategic goals and 15 assignments for the government.

These included streamlining tax regimes, revamping the existing budget and funds systems, as well as managing the budget on a three-year basis so the government can exercise greater flexibility in running the economy.

In particular, the committee told the Cabinet that spending more on reinforcing the social security net would have a synergistic effect of balanced growth and distribution of wealth.

It pointed out that, while the proportion of social welfare spending within the general account has grown from 9.0 percent in 1997 to 13.1 percent in 2003, it was still low compared to what other advanced countries spent on a regular basis.

The numbers are also far lower than the 25.2 percent the government has earmarked for economic development, the 18.1 percent it plans to spend on education and the 16.3 percent that will go into national defense spending this year.