The legislature’s Transportation Committee on Thursday voted to schedule another meeting to discuss whether the government should start charging car drivers a vehicle fuel tax based on the amount of gasoline they use, as committee members failed again to reach a consensus on an issue that has been debated for years.
The Highway Act (公路法) states that motor vehicle owners are required to pay a vehicle fuel tax every year, with the amount depended on the vehicles engine displacement — making it a fixed fee applicable to all vehicle owners, regardless of the distance driven that year.
Some people think that the tax should be based on the “beneficiary pays principle” and paid when people buy gasoline, while others believe asking drivers of electric cars to pay the tax is unreasonable, as they do not consume any fuel.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has been hesitant to change the way vehicle fuel tax is charged.
Many drivers in the 1960s turned to underground oil suppliers for fuel to avoid paying fuel tax when the government introduced a fuel tax at the pump, the ministry said.
Not only did the policy lead to confusion in the petrochemicals retail market, but it led to a shortfall in the highway maintenance fund, which was partially funded by fuel taxes, the ministry said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲), one of the lawmakers who proposed that car drivers pay fuel taxes at the pump, said his proposal would reduce the cost of collecting taxes.
He said that many advanced countries around the world have already adopted the same policy and asked why the ministry continued to deem it unfeasible.
The government should start enforcing the policy next year and apply it to private cars first, he said, adding that the tax should be renamed the “road usage fee,” because that is how the funds are used.
DPP Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) opposed a change, saying that drivers should be charged based on the burden that their driving habits impose on road maintenance.
Drivers should be charged based on their driving distance, because it is the easiest way to determine a reasonable charge for road usage, he said, adding that it is the ministry’s responsibility to ensure that drivers do not tamper with odometers.
It is reasonable for gas retailers, which are regulated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to collect the air pollution fee from consumers, as the use of fuel generates pollution, but Lin’s proposal would ask gas stations to collect the road usage fee as well, which should be collected by MOTC, Chung said.
The transportation ministry has to consider if it is legitimate for another government agency to collect the levy on its behalf, he added.
Meanwhile, counties with less-developed public transport systems should be charged less road usage fees, as residents depend heavily on the use of private motor vehicles, he said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-pen (鄭運鵬) said that he was against changing the title of the fuel tax to road usage tax, because it would be like punishing people living in remote areas, who rely on the use of private vehicles for their everyday needs.
The government collects approximately NT$46 billion (US$1.52 billion) each year, which is used to fund road maintenance, MOTC Deputy Minister Chi Wen-chung (祈文中) said.
The ministry is scheduled to submit a research report in October on the potential issues that would occur if a new scheme is implemented, including whether it the tax would generate reliable revenue to fund road maintenance or cause public transport operators to raise ticket prices.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan