TAIPEI - TAIWANESE prosecutors said on Thursday 46 port and shipping company officials have been indicted on corruption and fraud charges for falsifying data to claim money at the island's largest port.

The director and deputy director of Kaohsiung Port Bureau were among those charged with forging companies' shipping data to claim nearly 300 million Taiwan dollars (S$13.5 million) in performance incentives from the government, prosecutors said.

Taiwan's three major shippers - Evergreen Marine, Yang Ming Marine and Wan Hai Lines - as well as APL, a unit of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines and NYK logistics (Taiwan), a subsidiary of Japan's NYK Line, were allegedly involved in the case, they said.

Kaohsiung port authorities started offering performance incentives to shippers in 2006 in a bid to boost the competitiveness of the port, which has seem its global ranking slide in recent years. -- AFP