The Ministry of Finance said it is planning to increase the allowance for duty-free alcohol brought into the country by travelers for their personal use from the current 1 liter to 1.5 liters.
When the regulation is changed, it would take effect in the first quarter of next year, a ministry official said recently.
Photo: CNA
Currently, the allowance for duty-free alcohol for personal use is 1 liter per incoming traveler, with no limit on the number of bottles and no requirement for customs declaration.
Passengers who exceed the duty-free limit must declare the alcohol, otherwise they risk confiscation and fines at customs, according to the current regulations.
The ministry is now planning to increase the duty-free allowance, taking into account the relevant regulations in other countries, tax implications, and opinions in Taiwan's alcohol and import industries, the official said.
According to a recent Customs Administration survey, the duty-free allowance for alcohol in Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Macau is 1 liter per inbound passenger, while in China it is 1.5 liters, and in South Korea and Singapore it is 2 liters.
In Vietnam, the duty-free limit is 1.5 to 3 liters, depending on the alcohol percentage, while Japan allows three bottles of less than 760ml each, which is about 2.28 liters in total.
In the US and Australia, the duty-free allowance for alcohol is 1 liter and 2.25 liters respectively.
The UK allows incoming travelers to bring in a maximum 42 liters of duty-free beer and 18 liters of grape wine.
If Taiwan raises its duty-free limit for alcohol to 1.5 liters, the total tariffs, business taxes, and tobacco and alcohol taxes would drop by millions of New Taiwan dollars per year, the ministry said, citing an estimate of 12 million incoming travelers annually.
The ministry official said it had been considering increasing the duty-free allowance to 2 liters, but has settled on 1.5 liters after careful evaluation of the opinions of associations in the domestic alcohol and import industries.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the