TRAVEL
Airport tax to rise in April
The airport tax departing passengers must pay is set to rise from NT$300 (US$9.5) to NT$500 in April, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said yesterday. The increase in revenue will be used to improve airport facilities and promote tourism, the agency said. Airport tax has not been raised for 27 years, and an increase in the fee would bring the nation more in line with international standards, the agency said. Singapore’s Changi Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport both charge more than NT$800 per passenger, while Japan’s Narita Airport and Incheon International Airport in South Korea charge about NT$700. The CAA said the airport tax brought in about NT$5.3 billion last year. After the tax hike takes effect, the government will earn about NT$9 billion in airport tax annually, and the previous 60-40 distribution ratio will become 50-50, the agency said.
HEALTH
Enterovirus 71 case reported
The public should remain on alert against enterovirus and pay attention to hygiene after the first imported case of enterovirus 71 infection was reported recently, the Centers for Disease Control said yesterday. A three-year-old boy who lives in Malaysia developed a sore throat and earache after his family arrived in the nation on Nov. 26, the agency said. He was confirmed to have enterovirus 71 on Nov. 27 and has now recovered. The centers reminded the public to take precautions, as the virus could remain active in the winter. Infants and children under the age of five are at increased risk of developing enterovirus infections with severe complications, officials said, adding that as soon as a child shows suspected symptoms of the virus, such as persistent fever, drowsiness, inactivity or continuous vomiting, the child should be taken to a hospital immediately for a check-up.
FISHERIES
Captain dies after capsizing
A fishing boat captain has died and two other crew members remain unaccounted for after their vessel hit rocks in waters off the northern coast and capsized late on Friday, the Coast Guard Administration said. The boat, which set sail at 1pm from Yehliu (野柳) in New Taipei City with 11 people aboard, was reported to have overturned at 11:27pm, the agency said. Coast guard personnel managed to rescue eight people from the sea. The captain’s body was found about 6am yesterday. The search is continuing for the two crew members, one of whom is Taiwanese and the other Indonesian, the coast guard said.
CRIME
Winery under investigation
A winery in Taoyuan County’s Yangmei Township (楊梅) is under investigation for allegedly selling Australian red wine diluted with a locally made version to distributors and supermarkets. The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday said that Universal Distiller Product Co had allegedly sold various kinds of red wine, labeled as imported, to distributors that included hypermarkets and convenience store chains. At least some of the wine was not entirely imported, but had had been mixed with cheaper local wine, prosecutors said, adding that the winery had sold more than 100,000 bottles of diluted red wine over the past year. They said the company allegedly made a profit of almost NT$10 million from sales of the suspect wine.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
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