Those who illegally manufacture, import, sell or transport wine will face heavier punishments if draft amendments to the Wine and Tobacco Management Act (
The Executive Yuan is scheduled to approve the draft at the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting today.
In a bid to battle the problem of bootleg rice wines that are thought to have killed several people, the Cabinet has planned to take steps, including revising the law.
According to the draft revision, those who manufacture or import bootleg wine will face a sentence of up to three years and a fine of between NT$600,000 and NT$3 million.
At present, the maximum sentence is one year with a fine of between NT$300,000 and NT$1.5 million.
For those who deliberately sell, transfer or display bootleg wines, the sentence will increase from one year to two years and the maximum fine from NT$750,000 to NT$1.5 million.
Bootleg manufacturers could also face murder charges in connection with the deaths of people poisoned by contaminated rice wine.
The government has also taken the initiative to revise the Wine and Tobacco Tax Act (菸酒稅法) aimed at replacing the NT$150 tax per liter with a levy of 120 percent of the price of every 0.6 liter bottle.
The proposed cut is expected to bring the price down NT$130 to between NT$50 and NT$60.
The Cabinet, however, would like to wait until Taiwan reaches a consensus with the US and the EU over the proposal of tax reduction to approve the tax revision.
"We'd like to negotiate with other WTO members for their permission to change the taxation on rice wine under the WTO framework," Cabinet spokesperson Chuang Suo-hang (
As a condition for its WTO membership, Taiwan agreed to tax rice wine on the basis of quantity -- NT$150 per liter in the first year of accession and NT$180 per liter from the second year.
The US turned down Taiwan's proposal to lower its tax on rice wine during the first round of bilateral consultations last Thursday.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun ordered early consultations with the US and the EU on a rice-wine tax cut under the WTO framework, to be coupled with a revision of the Wine and Tobacco Tax Act, in the wake of a rice-wine bootlegging crisis that has resulted in more than 11 deaths and other injuries nationwide over the past few weeks.
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