The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday announced a draft amendment to the Water Pollution Control Act (水汙染防治法), which proposes to impose a tax on wastewater discharged from science parks and industrial complexes starting from next year.
Households are also to be taxed depending on the amount of wastewater they produce from the fourth year following the enforcement of the levy, the draft showed.
EPA Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) said that the taxes would come into effect as soon as February next year.
The agency plans to hold two public hearings next week and to announce the final version of the draft next month, Wei said.
Under the proposal, taxes would be implemented in three stages, with the first targeting industrial areas and science parks, such as photovoltaic and electronics companies.
Operators in the animal husbandry industry with ranches of a size exceeding the EPA’s specifications would be taxed starting from the third year, while households and owners of public or private drainage systems would be required to pay from the fourth year, according to the draft.
Wastewater containing heavy metals such as mercury, lead, copper, chromium, cadmium; toxic substances such as cyanide and arsenic; or any controlled pollutant listed by the agency are to be taxed, it said.
According to the draft, the amount of money due in tax payments is to be calculated by an equation that multiplies the quantity of effluent by the concentration levels of pollutants, then multiplying the number by rates determined by the EPA.
EPA Department of Water Quality Director Hsu Yung-hsing (許永興) said that companies and plant owners should boost efficiency by recycling wastewater or reducing the concentration of pollutants in preparation for the launch of the taxes.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS