Several civic groups yesterday urged the government to halt sales of duty-free cigarettes at the nation’s airports to put an end to the rampant practice of people buying large quantities of tax-exempt tobacco products and selling them to youngsters for a profit.
“Since last year, we have been receiving anonymous complaints that a growing number of tobacco brokers, duty-free shop employees, airport workers, or tourist guides have taken advantage of the nature of their professions to buy large quantities of duty-free cigarettes abroad or at the nation’s airports and smuggle them into the country,” John Tung Foundation chief executive officer Yao Shi-yuan (姚思遠) said yesterday in a press release.
Yao said nearly 33 million packs of cigarettes are smuggled into the country each year this way, with an estimated market value of NT$3.6 billion (US$120 million).
“Allowing such products to enter the local market not only puts public health at risk, but it also costs the government about NT$1.3 billion in tax revenue each year,” Yao said.
Chen Shu-li (陳淑麗), a permanent voluntary worker at the foundation, said that the huge price difference — about NT$300 to NT$400 per carton — between duty-free tobacco and that sold locally is fueling the trade for smuggled goods.
“Due to their relatively low price, duty-free cigarettes are particularly appealing to teenagers who live on a limited allowance,” Chen said, urging the government to immediately stop selling duty-free cigarettes for the sake of the health of young people and national security.
Consumers’ Foundation honorary chairman Jason Lee (李鳳翱) said that although government regulations limit the number of duty-free cigarettes that Taiwanese tourists can bring in to one carton, violators only face a fine of NT$500 without any criminal penalties.
“Such a regulation exists in name only and explains why the airports have become a hotbed for smugglers of duty-free tobacco,” Lee said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS