The latest property and asset reports made available by the Control Yuan on Thursday showed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) savings decreased by NT$4.15 million (US$131,830) between November last year and her inauguration on May 20.
Tsai in August declared NT$49 million in savings, NT$4.13 million in securities, four properties under trust and two buildings under her ownership, the report showed.
Tsai did not declare any vehicles or jewelry, but declared NT$90,000 in rental expenses paid to Dongdao Corp and a NT$1.1 million in investment with Dongdao, as well as NT$10.2 million in housing loans.
Tsai listed the author’s rights for two books she wrote as “inestimable.”
The report showed that Tsai asked a lawyer to open a trust fund account to manage the government subsidies for the votes she received in the 2012 presidential election and that money was used to fund the Thinking Taiwan Foundation. As of August, the trust fund held NT$10 million, the report showed.
However, this year’s vote subsidies for the Jan. 16 presidential election were given to the Democratic Progressive Party, the report showed.
According to Article 41 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), presidential candidates are eligible for subsidies of NT$30 per vote if a candidate garners votes exceeding one-third of the nation’s population.
However, the subsidy cannot exceed the candidate’s highest campaign fund total. The subsidies should be given to the candidate’s political party, provided the party nominated by the candidate.
The report showed that Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and his wife, Lo Feng-ping (羅鳳蘋), have NT$33 million in savings, with 40 investments in various funds and securities valued at NT$14 million.
Chen declared NT$5.75 million in credit debt from real-estate purchases, two tracts of land and five building spaces in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正), as well as two tracts of land and one building in Daan District (大安) and NT$158,570 in China Steel Corp securities in trust.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and his spouse, Wu Pei-ling (吳佩凌), declared NT$26 million in savings, NT$327,712 in securities, NT$5.93 million in creditor’s obligations and NT$1.93 million in home and car loans.
Lin declared ownership of one plot of land and six buildings in Daan District, as well as NT$73 million of securities in trust.
He has placed three tracts of land and 11 items of building space, in Daan and Wenshan districts (文山), in trust.
Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and her husband, Shen Hsueh-jung (沈學榮), declared NT$185 million in savings, two tracts of land and four buildings, NT$136 million in debtor’s obligations, NT$193 million in investments, along with three tracts of land, 10 buildings and NT$128 million in securities in trust.
Presidential spokesperson Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that Tsai’s savings decreased because she made donations to various charities and social welfare campaigns, including NT$2.5 million to social welfare groups, NT$1 million to the Tainan victims of an earthquake in February and NT$500,000 to the Punzagalan Choir to attend the Cantemus International Choral Festival in Hungary in August.
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