Congressional review of the new luxury tax bill is scheduled to start today. And several concerned activist groups, who fear the resulting law will be rendered toothless due to political compromises, held a joint press conference on Tuesday calling for the lawmakers to resist pressure from interest groups, and to commit themselves to making the new legislation live up to its goal of curbing property prices.

A draft of the luxury tax has been readied for the start of the legislature on April 6th with a coalition of civic groups and academics holding a press conference asking for more legislative scrutiny.

It called for more restraint in short-term real estate investment, putting forward three demands, that in addition to first homes, pre-sale housing should included in this luxury group.

This was followed by a suggestion that farmhouses and farm land should be included as according to the Ministry of Finance from July 2009 to March 2010,

there were 12,000 farmhouses with submitted land assessment value of just 54.42mn NT$ as it encouraged raising tax and lengthening the period of holding from 2 to 3 years.

Civil groups said it would be monitoring the whole process.

And it would also announce a list of legislators opposed to the luxury tax, and through the power of civilian oversight they aimed to stop the improper blocking of this bill by certain legislators.

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