TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - NT$865 million (US$28.5 million) worth of properties owned by the Kuomintang (KMT) is to be forfeited from Monday after the party's failure to pay Cabinet-ordered compensation for selling properties acquired from the former Japanese colonial government.

The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, a government body designed to investigate the KMT's assets, ordered the party to pay NT$865 million into the state coffers by last Friday. While the party offered to pay what is claimed to be NT$865 million-worth of U.S. dollar denominated bonds issued by the government in 1947, the offer was not accepted by the Administrative Enforcement Agency as these bonds are considered “invalid securities” according to an act that regulates the relations between Taiwan and China.

Article 63 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area stated that the unliquidated foreign currency denominated bonds issued by the government in the mainland prior to 1947 will not be honored by Taiwanese government.

The KMT has been requested to return proceeds from the sales of public assets it took over from the Japanese colonial government during the one-party-state era ever since the establishment of the committee last year, while the party claims its "ill-gotten assets" are a form of compensation for war costs.

An Administrative Enforcement Agency official said that action will be taken to have the party repay the proceeds gained from the illegitimately obtained assets and the agency will seize the party's real estate properties nationwide with an equivalent value and take them to auction.

According to Liberty Times, the real estate properties targeted in the seizure are mostly located in the expensive areas of Taipei City, including a KMT branch office on Bade Road in Taipei City and one in Kinmen County. The committee spokesperson was quoted as saying by Apple Daily that the assessed land values for these seized properties is estimated to reach NT$350 million in total.