The legislature's Finance Committee passed a proposal Wednesday, demanding the "Ministry of Finance" (MOF) regularly make public the names of individuals who owe at least NT$10 million ($313,000) in unpaid taxes and those of companies owing over NT$50 million.

The resolution came after "Minister of Finance" Lee Sush-der briefed the finance committee on the collection of taxes in 2010. During the meeting, he was prompted by several lawmakers to strengthen measures to collect unpaid taxes.

Ruling Kuomintang legislator Lo Shu-Lei said there are still many people in Taiwan like Jack Sun, who had owed the government a lot of money in unpaid taxes.

Sun, former chairman of the Pacific Electric Wire and Cable Co, the subject of one of the most high-profile cases of tax evasion, recently paid off all his unpaid taxes totalling NT$300 million. He had come under public criticism after local media reported that he continued to maintain a luxurious lifestyle despite having declared bankruptcy and owing taxes.

Lo argued that Sun's case reflects the problem that many big tax debtors are not too poor to pay, but "unwilling to pay."

Facing lawmakers' questions on Taiwan's tax revenues, Lee said the amount of accumulated unpaid taxes in the past five years has reached approximately NT$300 billion.

Lee pointed out that on average, unpaid taxes amounted to less than NT$60 billion a year, accounting for 4 percent of the total annual tax revenue. Lee said the percentage was "not big."

But faced with lawmakers' demands for the MOF to force the debtors to clear their unpaid taxes, Lee, who had once urged "harmony" in handling the matter, promised to step up measures to collect overdue taxes.

The resolution requires the MOF to reveal tax debtors' names, the amount of their unpaid taxes and details of their payment. The lawmakers did not specify how they want the information to be publicized - such as whether it should be available on the MOF's website long-term or whether it would just be released in a press conference and available for a short time only.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/25/2010 page4)