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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the