The price of cigarettes is to increase by NT$20 (US$0.66) per pack later this year after the Legislative Yuan yesterday passed the third and final reading of an amendment to the Tobacco and Alcohol Tax Act (菸酒稅法), with the additional revenue to be earmarked for the nation’s “long-term care services program 2.0.”
The amendment raises the tax on all types of cigarettes from NT$590 per kilogram (1,000 cigarettes) to NT$1,590 per kilogram, which translates into a tax per packet of NT$31.8, up from NT$11.8.
The increase is expected to generate NT$23.3 billion in additional tax revenue per year, which is to be used to finance the “long-term care services program 2.0” that aims to make long-term care more accessible, the Ministry of Finance said.
The policy would also help curb tobacco consumption and promote public health, Minister of Finance Sheu Yu-jer (許虞哲) said earlier this year.
Separately, the Hualien County Environmental Protection Bureau said that the mandatory use of transparent plastic trash bags would be implemented across the county from July 1.
The program’s goal is to make it easier for garbage collectors to inspect what is being thrown into plastic bags, ensuring that residents correctly separate their waste from recyclables, the county government said.
This would hopefully reduce the amount of trash and increase the county’s recycling rate, bureau Director Jao Chung (饒忠) said.
The use of transparent plastic bags has already demonstrated positive results since the policy’s implementation in the county’s public and government buildings last year, the bureau said.
Between May and December last year, the county recycled 14.02 percent more waste materials than in the same period in 2015, while the amount of trash collected was down 4.23 percent in the same period, it added.
Based on data provided by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration on Hualien’s garbage collection, Jao said that one-fifth of the trash that ends up in the county’s landfills is usually recyclable.
If recyclable waste could be properly classified before it is thrown out, the county would be able to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills, he 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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