The Cabinet has finalized draft amendments to the Company Act (公司法) in what could be its largest revision in a decade, aiming to remove restrictions on management board and employee remuneration, and bolster enforcement of regulations against money laundering.
To clamp down on money laundering, the draft amendment proposes that the nation’s 688,319 companies be required to declare information regarding beneficiaries, including board directors, supervisors, managers and shareholders who hold a more than 10 percent stake in the company.
Companies that fail to do so would be subject fines of up to NT$5 million (US$166,633) or could have their licenses withdrawn, according to the amendments.
The act as it stands does not regulate beneficiaries who control a large share of companies’ assets. The proposed amendments would allow police, banks, accountants and lawyers to review a company’s data.
Board members would be authorized to review a company’s financial and management status and firms that fail to comply would be subject to a fine of NT$240,000 to NT$2.4 million, the proposals said.
The measures are to help the nation prepare for evaluations by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering in November next year.
Meanwhile, the amendments also ease restrictions on board and shareholder meetings to prevent companies from rejecting meeting requests.
Only a company’s chairperson has the power to call board meetings, but the amendments would authorize board members to call meetings with the consent of more than half of board members.
To facilitate shareholder meetings, the amendments would require companies to provide the list of shareholders to company officials who are authorized to convene shareholder meetings, as in practice, some companies might withhold the list to prevent a shareholder meeting from being called.
The amendments would also allow businesses to issue shares in their subsidiaries or parent company to employees to create flexibility in employee remuneration.
Businesses would also be permitted to distribute dividends twice a year, once more than current regulations accomodate.
“The amendments are the largest revision of the Company Act in 10 years, with 150 out of the act’s 449 articles to be modified,” Cabinet deputy spokeswoman Chang Hsiu-chen (張秀禎) said.
The amendments are designed to remove restrictions, create flexibility, improve corporate governance and facilitate digitization and internationalization, Chang said.
The amendments were first proposed by former premier Lin Chuan (林全) and have been discussed for more than a year. They are considered a major piece of legislation by the Democratic Progressive Party administration to improve company management flexibility and transparency.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard