The Legislative Yuan's Judiciary Committee yesterday passed a set of amendments to the Act for the Control and Punishment of Smuggling (懲治走私條例) that strengthens both fines and prison terms for smugglers.
The amendments must still pass second and third readings in the Legislative Yuan before they become law.
If passed as written, casual smugglers -- those carrying more than threshold amounts of contraband (laid out in the amendments) and that have not been apprehended for the crime before -- will face fines of up NT$3 million and imprisonment for up to seven years.
Further, professional smugglers -- those that have been caught before and are in possession of more than threshold amounts of contraband -- will face fines of up to NT$7 million and imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Under the current law, fines are an optional punishment and the maximums for casual and professional smugglers are NT$200,000 and NT$300,000, respectively.
Lastly, anyone caught with contraband less than the stipulated thresholds will face a fine of up to NT$3 million and prison term of five years in prison.
At present, the maximum prison term and fine (optional) for this category of offense is three years and NT$150,000, respectively.
Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) said the proposed amendments are in line with a consensus reached at the Economic Development Advisory Conference (EDAC) in August.
The EDAC, a government-sponsored gathering of eminent personalities from business, academia and government, adopted a resolution urging the government to take more effective measures against smuggling especifically to control agricultural contraband entering Taiwan from China.
DPP lawmaker Tsai Huang-liang (
Most of the goods smuggled into Taiwan from China are high-value agricultural products, including mushrooms and herbs, and that their sale to local consumers threatens the livelihoods of domestic producers, Tsai noted.
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