The Executive Yuan is set to approve a draft bill for the management of fireworks and firecrackers (爆竹煙火管理條例) on Wednesday, which would punish shop owners selling the products to children under the age of 12 and parents who let their children play with fireworks. The draft law also seeks to punish illegal family-run fireworks factories.
According to a Cabinet official who asked not to be named, the draft law penalizes shop owners selling firecrackers or fireworks to children under the age of 12 by imposing a fine of between NT$2,000 and NT$10,000.
Parents allowing children under 12 to play with firecrackers or fireworks could be fined a similar amount.
The owner or owners of illegal fireworks factories would receive a jail term of up to three years on top of a fine of up to NT$150,000 if they cause any casualties.
The draft would also empower local governments, including the two special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung cities, to decide the time, place, variety and ways of holding local fireworks festivals.
The Executive Yuan ordered the Ministry of the Interior to present the draft bill to regulate the nation's fireworks industry following a deadly explosion in February last year.
Six people, including a 12-year-old child, were killed by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in southern Tainan county.
The blast at around 5:30pm demolished the factory near the town of Yenshui (鹽水), 300km south of Taipei, which was swarming with tens of thousands of visitors a day before an annual fireworks festival.
Yenshui is known for its annual parade when townspeople carry fireworks that shoot from beehive-like boxes to drive away evil spirits.
The parade is held on the Lantern Festival, which ends a 15-day celebration of the Lunar New Year.
The nation already has laws banning fireworks except on certain festivals. But authorities have promoted the fireworks parade in Yenshui as a tourist attraction.
Ironically, while authorities have promoted the fireworks parade in Yenshui as a tourist attraction, certain fireworks, such as the beehive rocket-launcher, are banned from domestic distribution.
In addition to ordering the interior ministry to formulate the bill regulating the fireworks industry, the Executive Yuan also requested the ministry study the possibility of legalizing the production and distribution of certain fireworks.
The government is considering importing those fireworks considered highly hazardous while banning them from domestic distribution in a bid to avoid fires and injuries.
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