A smokers’ rights group yesterday filed a complaint with the Control Yuan, urging the watchdog organization to look into recent allegations that the Health Promotion Administration has misused the health and welfare surcharge on tobacco products.
The Taiwan Smokers’ Rights Promotion Association (TSRPA) made the move about a week after several Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators accused the administration of having allowed different government agencies to use 30 percent of the surcharge revenue — which amounts to nearly NT$30 billion (US$949 million) a year — on unrelated matters.
The lawmakers cited a private foundation headed by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳), which they said had been allocated subsidies from the tobacco surcharge several times to print lunar calendars and a gourmet guidebook.
“The administration has dismissed the allegations by claiming that there is nothing illegal about the matter. It has also threatened to take legal action against whoever reports, shares or comments on such unfounded rumors,” TSRPA director-general Chen Chi-an (陳麒安) told a press conference in front of the Control Yuan yesterday morning.
Chen said the agency’s “condescending response” prompted the association to lodge the complaint against Health Promotion Administration Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) on three grounds: dereliction of duty; benefiting specific individuals and political parties; and inadequate implementation of government policies.
It also urged the Control Yuan to investigate appropriations of the tobacco surcharge’s revenue over the past few years.
“The day we realize that the purpose of a government policy is to favor certain people and parties and to serve as a channel for transferring benefits ... is the day we must stop suffering in silence and stand up against this unjust system,” Chen said.
Chiou could not be reached for comments as of press time.
In a separate event earlier yesterday, Chiou said the Tobacco Control Act (菸害防治法) stipulates that the surcharge on tobacco sales should be reviewed and adjusted every two years, but six years have passed since the last increase in the levy.
“There are three major obstacles standing in the way of another increase: corporations, corporations and corporations,” Chiou said.
Chiou said her agency’s plans to further raise the surcharge and sales tax on cigarettes by NT$20 and NT$5 per pack respectively in the near future, a plan that she said could reduce the nation’s smoking rate by 20.8 percent, prompt 740,000 smokers to quit and create a long-term benefit of about NT$296 billion to society.
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