Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) yesterday announced that the Cabinet is mulling amending the law to allow people to buy alcohol over the Internet.
According to existing regulations, alcohol may not be sold or transferred in a way in which the buyer or transferee cannot be identified, such as through vending machines, postal sales or electronic transactions.
The Cabinet is to study and draft rules to keep minors from being able to order alcohol online, Minister Without Portfolio Tsai Yu-ling (蔡玉玲) said.
Some of the regulations are to include requiring consumers to submit their name, birth date and ID number when placing orders; limiting payment methods to credit cards; and requiring consumers to show their ID card when picking up online purchases from convenience stores.
The Cabinet also plans to increase administrative fines for breaches committed by tobacco or alcohol producers, importers and sellers from between NT$10,000 and NT$50,000 to between NT$50,000 and NT$250,000.
Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said that eight nations and regions, such as Germany, Austria and Hong Kong, allow online alcohol purchases without restrictions.
A total of 19 nations and areas, including the UK, Japan and China, allow online purchases with restrictions; the US, Canada and South Korea partially allow online transactions; and eight nations, including Indonesia, Vietnam and Poland, do not allow such transactions, Sun said.
In other news, the legislature on Monday passed amendments to the School Health Act (學校衛生法) that ban the use of genetically modified ingredients or processed food with such ingredients in school meals.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬), one of the amendments’ sponsors, said that the nation imports more than 2.3 million tonnes of soybean products annually, 90 percent of which are genetically modified or “animal feed” products.
Most genetically modified crops are grown using chemical herbicides, and stored and shipped through a procedure fit for animal feed, Lin said, adding that if such crops were used in meals for schoolchildren, it would affect their physical and psychological health.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said that if students consume products that are made from genetically modified primary ingredients, it would be tantamount to a hidden food-safety crisis, because they would be exposed to unnecessary risks.
To ensure food safety and to protect students’ health, it is imperative to require that schools are rid of genetically modified food, the lawmakers said.
The Ministry of Education said that when the new requirements take effect — expected to be next semester at the earliest — the cost of school meals could increase by NT$5 per meal.
That would add NT$235.8 million to the ministry’s budget for subsidizing school meals for 262,000 disadvantaged elementary and junior-high school students, it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching