Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers are alleging that Chunghwa Post has been giving priority treatment to direct mail sent by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates in the January elections.
Chunghwa Post was scheduled yesterday to brief the legislature’s Transportation Committee on its budget for the next fiscal year, particularly a proposal to expand the scope of its life insurance service.
Several legislators also criticized the quality of service provided by Chunghwa Post.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said she had heard from other DPP candidates that Chunghwa Post gave priority to direct mail sent by KMT candidates, in some cases causing supporters to miss DPP campaign events.
In response, Chunghwa Post chairman Oliver Yu (游芳來) denied the company handled mail differently based on political affiliation, and said he had not heard of any instance of a candidate’s direct mail being deliberately delayed.
“For the postal service, customers are our bread and butter. All the mail is handled equally, regardless of politics,” Yu said, adding that he would nevertheless look into the matter.
Tseng Chin-hsiung (曾錦雄), director of Chunghwa Post’s mail and business operations department, said the postal service follows the principle of “first come, first served.”
He said postal workers worked extra hours if the mail received exceeded normal loads.
Meanwhile, lawmakers questioned Chunghwa Post’s ability’s to cope with the expansion of its life insurance service.
DPP Legislator Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成) said that despite having thousands of branches nationwide, Chunghwa Post has still had little success with the life insurance services it currently offered.
According to Chunghwa Post’s budget plan, its life insurance service generated NT$122.1 billion (NT$4 billion) in September, down 1.85 percent from the same time last year. However, the company still enjoyed a profit of NT$800 million and is currently ranked No. 7 in the nation’s life insurance sector.
Yu said since the amendment of the Simple Life Insurance Act (簡易人壽保險法), Chunghwa Post could now offer personal health insurance, pension insurance and injury insurance, though the amendment must first be approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission, Yu said.
KMT Legislators Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) brought up a series of negative cases this year involving company employees and asked Yu what he planned to do about them.
As an example, they pointed out that employees at the post office in the National Palace Museum had been found to have illegally profited from currency exchanges involving the Chinese yuan in September.
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