Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) yesterday said the tobacco health and welfare surcharge would be increased from NT$10 to NT$20 per pack on June 1.
The new surcharge means the average price of a pack of cigarettes will rise by between NT$10 and NT$15.
“The most significant thing about this increased surcharge is that we will use 4 percent of the surcharge to help poor people pay their National Health Insurance [NHI] premiums,” Yeh told a press conference at the health department yesterday afternoon.
He said the 4 percent was expected to amount to between NT$1.4 billion (US$42 million) and NT$1.5 billion.
As an example, Yeh said that those in Taipei whose monthly income was less than NT$17,655 would qualify for aid from the surcharge which would cover 50 percent of their monthly NHI premiums. For those whose monthly income is between NT$17,655 and NT$26,483, 25 percent would be covered.
Yeh said the Cabinet has requested law enforcement bodies to crack down on the expected increase in smuggling.
In related news, the John Tung Foundation yesterday made public a list of locations where there have been the most complaints against smokers breaking the smoking ban.
Under the terms of the ban, which took effect on Jan. 11, smoking is not allowed on public transport or in the indoor areas of most public premises.
More than 72 percent of complaints were filed at offices, Internet cafes, billiard halls, public bathrooms, restaurants, hospitals, KTVs and government offices, the foundation said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing