The first reading of the draft amendments to the Tobacco and Wine Law (菸酒稅法) failed to clear the legislature's Finance Com-mittee yesterday as lawmakers lambasted the government's plan to slash tax rates on cooking rice wine, rather than the more popular rice wine.
Popular seasoning
The Ministry of Finance plans to cut the tax on cooking rice wine, also known as salted rice wine, from NT$22 (US$0.70) per liter to NT$9 to encourage the public to purchase cooking rice wine and reduce demand for rice wine, the unsalted but popular seasoning.
Rice wine, categorized as liquor, is currently taxed at NT$185 per liter, compared with the NT$26 tax on a liter of beer.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said last October that the ministry should study the possibility of reducing tax rates on liquor and rice wine as soon as possible to ease the pressure from rising commodity prices and curb rampant bootlegging.
However, the government has to negotiate first with other WTO members before it can slash tax rates on all liquors, instead of unilaterally reducing taxes on rice wine.
The government's plan then is to encourage the use of cooking rice wine, which contains salt, as a complementary measure.
Displeasure
Lawmakers expressed their displeasure at the government's explanation at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Finance Com-mittee yesterday.
"Rice wine is one of the Tai-wanese people's daily necessities, but it is subject to a high tax rate equivalent to that imposed on higher-priced liquors like whisky," Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Fei Hung-tai (
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is