The Cabinet and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday finalized a draft bill that would allow the government to auction vacant private land in industrial parks in a bid to solve an industrial land shortage.
Land is one of five industrial shortages along with electricity, water, workforce and skilled workers.
The Cabinet on Saturday last week proposed a draft amendment to the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) that stipulates compulsory auction of vacant private land in industrial areas to free more space for factories and businesses.
Photo: CNA
Following days of controversy over the constitutionality of the proposal, it was finalized at a meeting between the Cabinet and the DPP caucus without any substantial changes.
According to the proposal, a vacant property is defined as any land on which no structure is built within three years of its acquisition, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
Owners of vacant plots of land would be charged a maintenance fee that is five times the average industrial park maintenance fee and given a two-year grace period to properly utilize the land, Hsu said.
If they fail to comply, they would be given a fine of up to 10 percent of the land’s market value and would have to put forward a plan for the land within a month.
If they still fail to comply, or if negotiations fail, the government could auction the property at a reduced price to the market value, Hsu said.
The two-year grace period cannot be renewed even if a vacant plot is sold before the period expires, meaning that the new owner of the vacant plot would have to utilize the land within the original grace period, he said.
“It is constitutional to limit property rights if they hinder the economy and national development,” Hsu said.
“Property rights come with social responsibility, it is not that property rights cannot be restrained. For example, you cannot build whatever you want on private land, you have to comply with construction and land-use laws,” he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party lawmakers have criticized the proposal as “authoritarian” and “detrimental to democracy.”
The amendment is to be sent to the legislature for review.
According to the Cabinet, 580 hectares is needed for industrial purposes and the government is working to make 604 hectares available in two years.
Meanwhile, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) yesterday said the ministry would order the Industrial Development Bureau to speed up the drafting of policy on how to handle idle land, and to propose a grace period between fines and forcible auction.
The bureau also needs to draft a countermeasure to prevent land owners building nonoperational plants on land to deceive the government, Shen said.
“We have to hurry as the Executive Yuan wants us to draft the policy with more details and implement it as soon as possible to alleviate the shortage of land,” Shen told reporters before the ministry’s weekly meeting.
Additional reporting by Lauly Li
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