Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shyu Jong-shyong (
"I would suggest giving these `card slaves' a fixed amount of time to pay off a certain percentage of their debts so that they do not have to file for bankruptcy. That way, they will have a second chance to pay off their debts and banks will be able to solve their bad debt problems as well," Shyu said.
Shyu made his remarks during a press conference at the legislature yesterday morning.
"Card slave" is a term used to refer to credit card holders who are in debt to their banks.
Shyu proposed solving the "card slave" problem by amending the Bankruptcy Law (
"Officials are currently working on decreasing the annual percentage rate (APR). We would like to suggest another solution to help both [card slaves and banks] to solve the problem more efficiently," Shyu added.
Shyu provided a rough outline of his idea. "Card slaves" who have regular income and whose credit card debts do not exceed NT$20 million (US$630,000) will qualify for the proposed program.
If the total amount of their debt is less than NT$2 million, they will have to pay at least one third of their debt every three months. If their debt is between NT$2 million and NT$5 million, they will be required to pay one fourth of the total in the same period; one fifth if the total is between NT$5 million and NT$10 million and one sixth if the debt is between NT$10 million and NT$20 million. All debts must be settled in the space of three to five years.
"I also hope that these card slaves will be allowed to maintain ownership of their real estate [if the plan is adopted]," Shyu said.
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