Those who accept political contributions from China will face a sentence of up to five years in prison if the draft bill of the statute regarding the management of political donations (政治獻金管理條例) becomes law.
The Executive Yuan is scheduled to approve the draft bill during its weekly closed-door meeting on Wednesday before sending it to the legislature for further review and final approval.
The bill is one of the four "sunshine laws" the government has been pushing since the late 1990s in a bid to make the finances and activities of parties more transparent.
The four sunshine laws include the political donation law, the political party law (
The Legislative Yuan passed the Trust Enterprise Law on June 30, 2000, helping KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Although the Cabinet approved the draft bill of the political party law on Sept. 11, it is still bogged down in the legislative process.
According to Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), who completed the review of the draft of the political donation statute on Thursday, the bill would ban politicians or those intending to run for public office from accepting political donations from certain groups or individuals.
"They include state-owned enterprises, institutions contracted with the government in investment or procurement, businesses with long-standing deficits, non-profit or charity-oriented social groups and [people and organizations from] China, Hong Kong and Macau," Yeh said.
Those who do accept capital or party assets from people and organizations from China, Hong Kong or Macau would be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
* If the draft bill becomes law, those who accept political donations from China will face up to five years in jail.
* The bill is one of the four `sunshine laws.'
* The other three are the political party law, the lobby law and the Trust Enterprise Law.
The draft states that three entities may accept political donations. They are local political parties, national political groups and potential candidates running for civil positions.
While political parties and political groups would be allowed to accept political donations from individuals or businesses on a long-term basis, potential candidates running for public office could only do so within a certain period of time.
Potential candidates running for president could not accept political donations until one year before the president's tenure runs out.
Those running for lawmaker, mayor of a special municipality, county commissioner, city mayor, county councilor and city councilor could not accept political donations until eight months before the terms of present incumbents come to an end.
The draft also set various ceilings on political donations accepted from individuals and businesses.
According to the draft, an individual would be banned from donating more than NT$100,000 to a particular political party each year. The annual total amount an individual could give to a particular candidate may not exceed NT$20,000 under the law.
If the draft were to become law, the total amount an individual could give to a mixture of political parties could not exceed NT$200,000 a year, and the allowable individual donations to more than one candidate must be less than NT$40,000 a year.
As for the political donation a business could give to a single political party, the total amount should not exceed NT$2 million a year. The annual total amount a business donates to a specific potential candidate may not exceed NT$400,000 a year.
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