An amended version of the Disposal Directions for Occupied National Non-public Use Real Estate (the Disposal Directions) was promulgated by Ministry of Finance (MOF) on July 5, 2021. For those occupiers who adopt a national non-public use cultural heritage for the first time under an adoption contract for a period of five years or more, one half of the use charge shall be paid, whereas the other half of the use charge shall be deferred; and, if certain conditions are met when the adoption duration becomes due without any breach of contract by the occupiers, then the remaining half of the use charge shall be exempted.

According to the National Property Administration (NPA), in recent years, cultural heritage cases designated or registered by the cultural competent authority have rapidly increased, amounting to 309 cultural heritages managed by the NPA as of the fourth quarter of 2020, thus resulting in an increasingly heavy burden for the maintenance and management costs to the NPA. To utilize external resources, conserve and maintain cultural heritages, and improve management effectiveness, the NPA started to accept applications for adoption of cultural heritages from outside parties since September 7, 2018. Adopters shall independently bear utility costs of the adopted subjects, such as water, electricity, management, maintenance, etc. without conducting profit-making activities. The adopted subjects shall also be adequately open to the public. Therefore, compared with other methods providing occupiers with use rights, such as leasing, the use of the cultural heritages is subject to restrictions to a certain degree. At present, the NPA has offered 43 cultural heritages for adoption by outside parties as of the end of June 2021, including 14 city monuments, such as Yanping Christian Church, Cihou Tianhou Temple, Madou Grand Matsu Temple, etc., where the corresponding occupiers have been previously granted the reduction of use charge to assist the occupiers in managing and maintaining the cultural heritages.

To enhance incentives to occupiers to fulfill their adoption responsibility during a certain period of time, expedite the introduction of private resources to jointly manage and maintain cultural heritages with efforts from public and private sectors, and solve the problem of occupation, this amendment of the Disposal Directions stipulates that aside from obtaining the legal right to use the cultural heritages and paying half of the use charge, for those occupiers who enter into a contract of adoption of cultural heritages for the first time for a period of five years or more, the other half of the use charge shall be deferred; and, if the adoption duration becomes due without any breach of contract by the occupier, or the contract is terminated during the adoption duration for reasons that are not attributable to the adopter, then the remaining deferred half of the use charge shall be exempted.

As further indicated by the NPA, this amendment also relaxes the requirements for occupiers’ applications to obtain the legal right to use the cultural heritage, where the types of cultural heritage that are qualified for reduction of the use charge by half shall include not only the monuments and historic buildings as required earlier, but also other applicable types of cultural heritages as provide by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (such as groups of buildings, commemorative buildings, cultural landscapes, etc.). It is hoped that through this amended measure, the benefits of conservation and maintenance of national cultural heritages are to be maximized, resulting in a win-win-win situation.

Press Release Contact: Zhou, Fu-Chen, Section Chief
Contact Number: 02-27718121 ext. 1211