Taipei City Councilor Pan Huai-tsung (潘懷宗) of the New Party on Thursday said that the city’s failure to follow up on delinquent parking tickets before enforcement deadlines has cost the city NT$260 million (US$8.59 million).
Under government regulations, the Taipei Parking Management and Development Office has five years to hand delinquent tickets off to the Administrative Enforcement Agency for follow-up action, Pan said.
However, between Sept. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2011, the office failed to submit all the unpaid tickets to the agency, the last of which expired at the end of last year, he said.
The office said it received too many tickets to process and did not have sufficient personnel.
“Given that the office pulls in more than NT$1 billion per year, we could look at preparing a budget estimate for hiring more people,” Pan said.
Pan said that in the past five years, the office had processed 1,032,239 unpaid tickets with a total value of NT$118.83 million.
Each of the 10 largest unpaid accounts — belonging to people with multiple unpaid tickets — are more than NT$360,000, Pan said, adding that the largest unpaid account is worth NT$4.36 million.
The account holder, surnamed Kuo (郭), has 20 vehicles registered in his name, Pan said.
“Frankly speaking, these people are just tying up parking spaces. Not only do they not pay the office, they prevent others from parking their cars,” he said.
In 2010, the office began sending Kuo’s tickets to the agency and obtaining creditor’s certificates, but discovered that Kuo had no assets it could confiscate for payment, Pan said.
He said the office considered confiscating Kuo’s cars, but found out that they were too old and held no value, adding that the office had therefore decided that towing the vehicles and selling them off at auction as it normally would have done would be ineffective.
The vehicles should still be towed away to free up the spaces for others to use, Pan said, adding that the office should also find other means to pursue the delinquent account.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS