The National Women’s League should disclose its assets as part of new broader financial reporting requirements for political organizations, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said yesterday.
“The National Women’s League was established by the KMT, but they have refused to respond to the questions about exactly how much of the nation’s treasury flowed into their coffers,” he said. “To say that the government did not participate in the group’s fundraising efforts is ridiculous. Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) let his wife call for donations and then forced the entire nation to pay.”
Chiang’s wife Soong Mayling (宋美齡) established the league and served as its head for decades. A tariff called the “Military Benefit Tax” benefiting the league was levied on the US dollar value of all imported goods between 1955 to 1989, allowing the league to finance a broad range of charitable work, notably including the construction of military dependents’ villages.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Hsu criticized the Ministry of the Interior for not forcing the organization to publicize its finances, saying that it could use provisions of the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法) to threaten the league with dissolution for illegal behavior if it refuses to disclose its financial records.
“The league should not be let off the hook because it is special in that its assets came from the public. Because they used illegal measures to deduct more than NT$100 billion in taxes [US$3.03 billion], the government has an obligation to require them to become transparent,” said Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), a lawyer and board member of the Taiwan Forever Association.
He said the forced deductions were illegal regardless of whether they were defined as “tax” or “donation,” because there was no legal foundation for them.
While ordinary civic groups are required to submit financial reports to the ministry, the league is an exception, because it is classified as a “political organization,” Department of Civil Affairs specialist Liu Li-fang (劉立方) said.
“Political organizations are not required to file financial reports under the law,” Liu said.
“Because political organizations have relationships with power, they should be required to reveal more about their finances. It makes absolutely no sense to require ordinary groups to make disclosures and then say that because the league is a political organization, there is nothing you can do,” Huang said.
Hsu said that political organizations should be required to meet the same requirements as other groups, because unlike political parties, they were not subject to ministry review.
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