Government eyes debt deadbeats

The government is planning new measures aimed at collecting tax arrears from both individuals and companies, according to the Chinese-language media.

The Ministry of Finance has sent a list of the nation's top debt deadbeats to the Ministry of Justice, which will take more forceful action aimed at collecting the debts, the report said.

The list includes more than 300 individuals and companies whose tax arrears total NT$2.2 billion, or one-third of all tax arrears owed to the government.

The list includes individuals who owe more than NT$10 million each, and companies that owe more than NT$100 million each in tax arrears.

On the list are elite business members, such as Kuangsan Group president Tseng Cheng-jen (曾正仁) and Hung Min-tai (洪敏泰), former head of the electronics firm Proton.

Tseng alone owes about NT$70 million in personal income tax arrears.

The measures being planned by the ministry include seizing assets, a ban on leaving the country and detention.

The fact that so many people and companies who owe tax arrears remain free to continue to do business in the country is a huge embarrassment for the law enforcement services, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) said yesterday.

The news came in the midst of stock market speculator Huang Jen-chung's (黃任中) trial on the charge of owing more than NT$1.4 billion in tax arrears.

Huang's case is still in progress.

Others on the list include Chinese Automobile Co's Chang Chao-hsiang (張朝翔) and Chang Chao-liang (張朝喨).