A proposal to cover long-term care costs by increasing taxes on cigarettes by NT$20 (US$0.63) per pack is expected to pass its final vote in the legislature this week.
The legislature is scheduled to deliberate on proposed amendments to the bill on long-term care services for the nation’s older and vulnerable citizens in a committee today, which includes increasing estate, gift and tobacco taxes.
A vote on the proposal on Wednesday is expected to pass.
According to the draft, the estate and gift taxes would be increased from 10 percent to 20 percent, while the tobacco tax would be increased from NT$590 to NT1,590 per 1,000 cigarettes. The additional revenue would be used to finance a long-term care fund.
The estate and gift taxes are expected to increase revenue by NT$6 billion and the tobacco tax by NT$15.8 billion, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.
Taxes on individual packs of cigarettes are to rise from about NT$11.8 to NT$31.8, which is expected to lead to a corresponding increase in market prices, the ministry said.
The tax hikes are expected to generate NT$21.8 billion in revenue, enough to cover the cost of long-term care needs for this fiscal year, which are estimated at NT$17.7 billion for the initial stage of “long-term care services program 2.0,” it added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said that although he believes the tax hikes are a “done deal,” he continues to have reservations as to whether they are a financial solution, adding that the taxes are “unstable sources of revenue from year to year.”
“The wealthy are already moving their assets to offshore tax havens and fiscal problems will surely resurface in five years’ time. Making smokers pay more taxes to support long-term care is a perverse way to encourage smoking, and raising prices would only exacerbate rampant tobacco smuggling,” Chiang said.
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said he is supporting an increase to the estate and gift taxes on the condition that the legal mandate is written with effective policy implementation and follow-up.
“Regarding the tobacco tax, responsible agencies have not clarified how raising prices could reduce the smoking population and serve as a source of revenue at the same time; as such, its instability as a revenue source will be an inevitable problem,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance’s estimates that the tobacco tax increase would reduce the annual quantity of cigarettes consumed by 330 million packs, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said, adding that the tax hike is “good public health policy” and generating sufficient revenue is “a small problem for the moment.”
Finding enough qualified nurses and caretakers is an urgent issue, which should be addressed by encouraging young people to begin careers in those fields, she added.
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
‘LONE WOLF’: The suspect was difficult to locate, as he did not use a cellphone, did not contact family and often lived in abandoned sites or parks, police said Taipei police on Thursday morning arrested a man accused of numerous burglaries and at least 14 incidents of sexual assault spanning more than 20 years, in what might be the nation’s most notorious crime spree in recent years. Sixty-year-old Tu Ming-lang (涂明朗) — who was yesterday placed in judicial detention, after a judge determined he was a flight risk without a fixed address — faces multiple charges of sexual assault and burglary, police said. A task force comprised of various law enforcement agencies arrested Tu as part of an investigation into an April 28 burglary in Daan District (大安), in which a
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
RSS