The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday 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 should be exempt from commodity taxes to make them more appealing to the public.
Citing data from the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers on Tuesday said that dialysis for kidney disease, and treatments for diabetes and periodontal disease account for the top three NHI expenditures, all of which are related to sugar intake.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
They proposed the bill to encourage manufacturers to make sugar-free beverages and encourage consumers to choose them, they said.
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 comply with national standards from the commodity tax.
The current commodity tax rate on beverages is zero for natural juices, 8 percent for diluted juices and 15 percent for other beverages.
The draft amendments would exempt color TVs, video recorders, record players and audio recorders from the tax.
The four household appliances have become essential consumer goods, and the fairness and legitimacy of taxing them have 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 to 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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