The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday approved a series of draft amendments to the Water Pollution Control Act (水汙染防治法), seeking to impose stiffer penalties on firms found to have illegally discharged wastewater or sewage.
If the draft amendments clear the legislative floor, firms that discharge wastewater, or arbitrarily dump or fail to properly handle sewage will be subject to a maximum fine of NT$20 million (US$658,000), a significant increase from NT$60,000.
Businesses could also face mandatory shutdowns and rescission of their discharge permits if they fail to make the necessary improvements within a statutory period.
Photo: CNA
In addition, owners of firms that emit potentially hazardous wastewater without permission could be sentenced to as many as seven years in prison, which would be commutable to a NT$20 million fine if the transgression causes illness, with the maximum length of prison terms increasing to between 10 years and life should illicit conduct lead to disability or death.
The preliminary passage of the draft amendments was prompted primarily by the Kaohsiung District Court’s decision in October last year to issue a fine of just NT$3 million to Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (AEC, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services provider for dumping massive amounts of wastewater into the city’s Houjin River (後勁溪).
Other major changes proposed by the draft amendments include increasing the maximum fine from NT$120,000 to NT$600,000 for proprietors of establishments engaged in animal husbandry who are caught illegally discharging sewage; offering whistleblowers a certain percentage of any fines as a reward; and barring firms found violating the act from receiving government benefits for three years.
Attorney and environmentalist Thomas Chan (詹順貴) lauded the draft bill’s preliminary passage, saying that he was particularly pleased to see Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators finally willing to join the right side.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan director Tsai Hue-hsun (蔡卉荀) said she was glad to see environmentalists’ push for the amendments finally coming to fruition.
However, Tsai said she was disappointed by the Council of Agriculture’s insistence on not setting the maximum fine for animal husbandry firms caught breaking the rules at NT$1.2 million, which the council said was a bid to protect small businesses.
“If the council is willing to offer fallow subsidies to rice farmers, why not use government resources to help small pig farms improve their wastewater treatment systems?” Tsai said.
Meanwhile, the Finance Committee approved an amendment to adjust downward the ceiling of revolving interest rates that domestic credit card and cash-advance card issuers can charge cardholders from 20 to 15 percent.
According to the Civil Law (民法), the ceiling for annual interest rates is generally set at 20 percent for the private sector. In a bid to ease the burden on hundreds of thousands of cardholders, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) last year issued an administrative order asking card issuers to keep their revolving interest rates at 16 percent or lower.
Some lawmakers, led by KMT Legislator Chen Ken-te (陳根德), had proposed setting the ceiling as low as 12 percent.
“Even at the commission’s request, I doubt if all the banks have followed the administrative order,” Chen said yesterday.
The commission and lawmakers reached a consensus on the issue, which led the committee to pass the preliminary review of a proposed amendment to the Banking Act (銀行法), adding a clause to cap revolving interest rates at 15 percent.
If the proposal is approved by the Legislative Yuan, the regulation could take effect in September at the earliest.
FSC Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that internal research showed that banks might be able to cover the cost of revolving credit with a revolving interest rate set at between 13 and 15 percent.
“Local banks should still receive sufficient payments under the move to cover their costs,” Tseng said.
Banking Bureau director-general Austin Chan (詹庭禎) said that if the amendment were to take effect later this year, it would benefit 800,000 to 900,000 cardholders.
However, the move could result in net losses of between NT$400 million and NT$500 million per year for the banking sector, Chan said, citing estimates made by the Bankers’ Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會).
The Finance Committee yesterday passed another amendment to the Banking Act, to extend the maximum limitation of a local bank’s reinvestment to 40 percent of its net asset worth.
The investment cap was previously set at 40 percent of a bank’s registered capital, which showed a gap of more than NT$1 trillion between the nation’s banking sector and the sector’s net asset worth.
The move might offer domestic banks more chances for mergers and acquisitions worth as much as NT$500 billion across the sector.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from