The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee today passed a draft amendment to the Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例) that would exempt sugar-free drinks from taxes, in an effort to promote health.
Lawmakers across party lines agreed that bottled beverages without added sugar, and which are produced in certain factory conditions, should be exempt from commodity taxes to make them a more appealing choice to the public.
Article 8 of the act already exempts “pure natural fruit juice, fruit syrup, concentrated fruit syrup, concentrated fruit juice and pure natural vegetable juice” that is in compliance with national standards from commodity taxes.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Under the draft amendments, other products removed from the list of taxable items would include color TVs, video recorders, record players and audio recorders.
The four household appliances have become essential consumer goods, and the fairness and legitimacy of taxes on them has been called into question, as new products continue to be made available, leading to a decrease in tax revenue.
The committee voted to entirely remove the 13 percent tax rate on the four appliances.
To ensure that consumers see the benefits of the new exemptions, the committee also passed a resolution that would require the Ministry of Finance provide data on commodity and business taxes for imported and domestically produced beverages according to their price.
The resolution would ask regulators to work alongside consumer protection groups to track whether manufacturers are passing the tax savings on to the public.
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