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Anti-fraud features to fortify ID cards

New national identification cards, to be issued next year, will be designed to prevent most types of forgery. The new cards will cost NT$25 per card, Ministry of the Interior officials said yesterday.

"Like the recently-launched NT$1000 bill, the new ID cards won't be easily fabricated," director of the ministry's population department, Liu Ming-chien (劉明堅) said.

Many foreign representative offices in Taiwan have complained of the rampant use of counterfeit IDs for visa applications. Liu said that laser technology would be utilized to attach citizens' photos to the new cards so that the photos cannot be easily fabricated or removed.

He said that the new ID cards would also be laminated with a double-sided adhesive layer in a further bid to eliminate forgery. The anti-forgery measures will account for NT$18 of each card's cost.

Taiwan's national identification cards have not been redesigned since 1986. The ministry, therefore, expects to renew ID cards for Taiwan's 18 million eligible citizens starting next July, Liu said.

Liu added that whether the ministry begins the project on time will depend on whether the household registration law is amended during the upcoming legislative session.

The project will cost the central government NT$1.06 billion, and the ministry suggested the Cabinet appropriate money from its "secondary reserve fund" to allow for the smooth reissue of the cards.

The Cabinet has yet to allocate a portion of its 2002 fiscal budget to carry out the project.

At the beginning of August, the Cabinet decided to scrap a controversial plan to fingerprint all citizens over the age of 14 when the ID cards were reissued, citing concerns that doing so would violate citizens' human rights.

Taiwan's mint, under the central bank, will print the new cards, Liu added.
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