Fri, Jun 19, 2009 page3

• DPP demands Lai take responsibility

  LAMBASTED The DPP caucus said negotiations on amendments to a cross-strait code broke down because of the MAC chairwoman’s lack of communication skills

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday skirted the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) demand that MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) take full responsibility for the legislature’s failure to pass amendments to a cross-strait code during the just-concluded legislative session.

  The legislature went into summer recess on Tuesday without passing amendments to Article 25-2 of the Act Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which would prevent double taxation.

  The MAC said the government had signed bilateral tax exemption agreements with 16 countries since 1981 and taxation agreements on air and sea transportation with 13 countries and regions. If the cross-strait revisions failed to pass the legislature, Taipei and Beijing would have no legal basis to negotiate on preventing double taxation, it said.

  The Legislature’s Organic laws and Statutes Bureau, however, says the cross-strait area falls under neither domestic nor international relations. Therefore it was inaccurate for the MAC to cite the country’s bilateral tax exemption agreements with other countries as an example.

  The DPP caucus, expressing concern that it would be tantamount to issuing the executive branch a blank check once the legislature gives it the go-ahead, said negotiations broke down because of Lai’s lack of communication skills.

  MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday said that while all tax exemption agreements signed with foreign countries had been approved by the executive branch and ratified by the legislature, there should not be a double standard when it comes to similar agreements with China.

  Liu said Article 5 of the Tax Collection Act (稅捐稽徵法) clearly states that the Ministry of Finance can sign tax exemption agreements with foreign governments based on the principle of reciprocity.

  The agreement must be approved by the Executive Yuan and exchanged with the foreign government in the form of diplomatic notes. Ruling No. 620 of the Council of Grand Justices states that all taxation-related matters must be regulated by laws or administrative decrees, Liu said.

  Liu said it was the consensus of both the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that cross-strait relations were a special situation. It was the reason the Act Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area came into being and why the DPP did not abolish it when it was in power, he said.

  Liu said they would continue to communicate with the government and opposition parties and hoped to see the revisions pass the legislature during the next legislative session in the fall.

  Meanwhile, the three agreements Taipei signed with Beijing in April are set to go into effect next week despite DPP opposition.

  The three agreements, signed on April 26, will take effect 60 days after signing.

  They are on financial cooperation, expansion of air links and joint efforts to combat crime and boost judicial cooperation.
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