New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday urged the Control Yuan to investigate Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) father-in-law, Lee Jih-kuei (李日貴), accusing him of illegally occupying more than 1 hectare of public land in Yunlin County with Han’s help.
“I hope the Control Yuan can answer questions that the National Property Administration could not, including why the family was allowed to illegally occupy public land, run a gravel business there and have taxpayers cover the cost of building an embankment,” Huang told reporters outside the Control Yuan in Taipei.
“Did the government and the business conspire to break the law and abuse their power? How much of that is tolerated?” he asked.
Photo: CNA
Huang on Friday last week said that Datong Gravel Co (大通砂石行), owned by Lee, a former Yunlin County councilor, allegedly obtained control of an area near the Jhuoshui River (濁水溪) in 2000 after Han, then a legislator, lobbied for NT$6.8 million (US$222,900 at the current exchange rate) to build the embankment.
The Lee family had been excavating gravel from the area since 1995 and, as soon as it was registered as public land in 2000, they applied to have it rezoned from agricultural to mining land to benefit the gravel business, Huang said yesterday.
The Yunlin County Government approved the application in just one day, even though the land use change contravened the Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法), he said.
The county only fined the company NT$60,000 for illegal use of land and damage to the ecosystem, he said.
Ye Yuan-zhi (葉元之), who is spokesman for Han’s campaign as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, said that Huang has no evidence of wrongdoing by Han.
The only so-called evidence of Han improperly using his influence is records from meetings on the embankment project, Ye said.
“We will not play along, because we know that Huang is doing this to get attention and to promote the NPP,” he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS