The government has helped enrich a hotel-management firm by leasing it state-owned Alishan House (阿里山賓館) at a low price, which the company has renovated and now offers rooms that cost thousands of New Taiwan dollars a night, several environmental protection organizations said.
In 2003, the Forestry Bureau signed a 32-year contract (2004 to 2035) with Chao-Li Hotel Management Advisory Co (朝麗旅館管理顧問公司) to renovate the original Alishan House and build and operate a new addition to the hotel, the groups said.
According to the groups, to get the lease the company only had to pay NT$10 million (US$338,600) in development royalties, NT$22,140 a year to rent the land and 7.77 percent of its net revenues.
However, as part of the agreement, the firm does not have to pay income tax and pays reduced house taxes, land value taxes and deed taxes, the groups said.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Foundation secretary-general Lin Tzu-lin (林子凌) said the original Alishan House became a national asset after being taken over by the bureau in 1945.
However, after being handed over to Chao-Li in 2003, based on the Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法), the revamped hotel was now charging NT$300,000 for a night in its presidential suite and at least NT$7,000 for the cheapest double room, Lin said.
Such a high price is only affordable for the richest Taiwanese, the groups said, adding that the government was clearly doling out favors to a big corporation.
Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), a land economics professor at National Chengchi University, said the high price of the hotel’s rooms had turned a public asset into “a castle in the mountains,” and the move violated the spirit of creating places and spaces that were accessible to everyone.
Lin Hsiang-kai (林向愷), a National Taiwan University economics professor, said the bureau should demand that the hotel reduce the price of a certain number of its rooms so they would be affordable for the public.
In response, Forestry Bureau Secretary-General Lin Hao-chen (林澔貞) said Alishan (阿里山) is an international scenic spot and the land rental was only NT$22,000 because the assessed and publicly announced land values were different.
However, there are seldom visitors to Alishan when typhoons strike, so the company’s management risks are high, she said, adding that it was agreed by both sides when the lease was signed that the hotel would have better facilities and charge higher prices to differentiate itself from other hotels in the area.
In response, Chen Chen-hsing (陳振興), general manager of the hotel, said Alishan House is located in the mountains, which makes logistics difficult and that pushed up construction costs.
Natural disasters also disrupted the construction, causing the scheduled three-year project to take nine years and costs to balloon to NT$1.3 billion, he added.
Additional reporting by Lin chia-chi and Yang chiu-ying
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