Drivers operating vehicles with forged or altered license plates or those obtained using a fake ID would be fined NT$36,000, up from NT$18,000, based on a proposed amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例).
The tougher sanctions would apply to drivers and owners of cars and motorcycles found with a forged license plate, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said at a news conference in Taipei.
Police can confiscate a vehicle if it is found to have a forged or altered license plate, and the plate would be destroyed, the ministry said.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
The amendment was proposed due to a dramatic surge in motor vehicles with forged license plates this year, Department of Public Transportation and Supervision Director-General Lin Fu-shan (林福山) said.
Not only do they disrupt the nation’s vehicle management system, but they also endanger road safety and threaten social stability, Lin said.
The ministry incorporated input from the National Police Agency (NPA), the Ministry of Justice, the Highway Bureau and transportation officials in drafting the amendment, he said.
Drivers operating vehicles with forged or altered license plates would receive the same fine as a dangerous driver, he said.
The amendment also stipulates that drivers would be fined NT$36,000 if they use a fake ID to acquire a license plate or if they drive a vehicle without a license plate, Lin said.
“We hope that the Executive Yuan would quickly review our proposed amendment and forward it to the legislature for further deliberation. The amendment can be enforced immediately after it is passed, as no other supporting measures are required,” the official said.
The number of cases involving forged license plates rose from 95 in 2021 to 169 in 2022 and 251 last year, Highway Bureau statistics showed.
As of last month, police had reported 1,012 cases so far this year, with 259 in August alone.
Aside from working with the Customs Administration and the NPA to stop the illegal import of license plates at the border, the transportation ministry has also worked with the Ministry of Digital Affairs to stop 46 cases of illegal plates being sold on Facebook, Line, YouTube, TikTok, Shopee, Yahoo and Ruten.
“Some people bought license plates online because theirs were suspended or revoked, while others bought them to commit crimes,” Lin said.
“By doing so, they have contravened transportation regulations and committed the crime of forgery,” he added.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS