The fee for Taiwanese who need to renew their passport or get a new one at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is set to rise sharply to NT$4,900 starting on April 1, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said.
The bureau said it will increase the fee for processing a passport at the airport from NT$900 to NT$3,600, which combined with the standard NT$1,300 fee for a new passport or a renewal would bring the total to NT$4,900.
The bureau said it has made it clear that issuing passports at the Taoyuan airport — the only airport in the nation equipped to do so — is a service intended solely to deal with emergencies.
However, some people have seen it as a convenient alternative to applying for a new passport or renewing one the conventional way through a consular office, abusing the system, the bureau said.
Bureau officials said that after some discussion it was decided to boost the airport processing fee to deter those who see the airport office as a shortcut for the sake of convenience rather than to deal with an emergency.
The bureau said it plans to phase out the passport renewal services at the airport to help stem the abuse, though it did not give a timetable.
A preliminary estimate shows that over the Lunar New Year holiday that began on Feb. 6 and ended on Sunday, the bureau issued more than 200 passports at the airport, nearly double the number issued over the holiday period last year, it said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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