Several new policies took effect on the first day of the year, ranging from labor rules to tax schemes and food safety.
Starting yesterday, workers can be granted a compensatory holiday if their routine holidays during the week happen to be national holidays.
Meanwhile, the labor insurance rate rose from 9.5 percent to 10 percent, affecting more than 10 million workers.
On average, the premium each worker has to pay per month is to increase by NT$19 to NT$44.
Employers across the nation are to collectively increase copayments by NT$8.27 billion (US$260.95 million).
Consequently, labor insurance revenue is set to increase by NT$15 billion.
Currently, the monthly premium for labor insurance is jointly paid by workers (20 percent), employers (70 percent) and the government (10 percent).
Employment rules requiring the fulfillment of job responsibilities can no longer be applied to people working in beauty salons, advertising agencies and 12 other job categories in which workers are not able to leave the workplace until they complete the day’s work.
According to the Ministry of Labor, workers in these 14 categories must adhere to the eight-hour schedule defined by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Approximately 70,000 workers are estimated to be affected by the new policy.
With tax reforms to enter the second phase this year, people with net annual income exceeding NT$10 million will have to pay more tax, with the rate increasing from 40 percent to 45 percent. The new policy applies to more than 9,000 households.
In addition, married couples can choose to file taxes on non-salary income separately and the total amount of deductibles for personal income tax is to be raised from NT$11,000 to NT$22,000.
To enhance food safety, the nation is set to implement a good manufacturing practice (GMP) system by which food firms must certify all of the products used in the manufacturing process to qualify as a GMP manufacturer. They must also register the names of their suppliers.
Also starting this year, supermarkets must place all alcoholic beverages in a specific section. Advertisements for alcohol must also include warnings such as: “Don’t drink and drive.”
The amount of cash that travelers entering or leaving Taiwan can carry has been raised from NT$60,000 to NT$100,000.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS