Political parties and groups are required by law to submit audited financial statements on political donations from the previous year to the Control Yuan by today, but many smaller parties might be fined because their statements have not been audited, triggering complaints from the small parties.
The Control Yuan said that, according to the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), political parties and groups that have applied to create bank accounts for political donations should file audited financial statements on political donations within five months after each year, whether they received donations or not.
Those that fail to do so face fines ranging from NT$200,000 to NT$1 million (US$6,479 to US$32,393).
The Ministry of the Interior counts 272 political parties and groups nationwide.
The rule triggered protests from New Hakka Party Chairman Ku Wen-fa (古文發), who said that many small parties do not collect membership fees or political donations, so submitting audited financial statements is too much trouble for them, especially because it costs at least NT$30,000 to hire a certified accountant.
The requirement is a financial burden and unfair to small parties, Ku said, adding that the responsible government agency should pay for accountants to do the job.
Control Yuan Department of Asset Declaration Director Lin Mei-hui (林美惠) said in response that there have been cases in which small parties that received no donations were unable to find accountants to make financial statements on their behalf.
The Control Yuan still asked them to make declarations according to the law, and helped them to find accountants willing to do so at a discount, Lin said.
An unnamed Control Yuan official said that the protest is understandable, so the ministry is mulling amending the law to waive political groups whose donations in a year total less than NT$10 million from submitting financial statements.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS