The health and welfare surcharge on tobacco products will be increased from NT$10 per pack to NT$20 per pack starting today.
Chao Kun-yu (趙坤郁), director of the Bureau of Health Promotion said retail stores are allowed to sell off their existing cigarette stocks without asking customers to pay the extra NT$10 surcharge.
The surcharge increase will raise the average per-pack price for cigarettes to between NT$55 and NT$70, depending on the brand.
PHOTO: LIN MING-HUNG, TAIPEI
According to an estimate by Chao, the new measure is expected to boost annual revenues from the health and welfare surcharge from NT$20 billion (US$615 million) to between NT$32 billion and NT$36 billion.
Chao said the DOH would use 4 percent, or NT$1.39 billion, of the revenues from the surcharge as subsidies to help 470,000 people obtain national health insurance. The Bureau of National Health Insurance will receive 70 percent of the surcharge revenues and will spend NT$10 billion to meet its financial shortfall, and the rest in various areas such as cancer prevention, raising the standards of medical services and treatment of rare diseases.
Meanwhile, the “high-season” summer rates policy adopted by the Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) will also take effect starting today.
On average, a typical local family uses around 421 kwh per month during the summer, which translates to an additional NT$102 in electricity bills per month.
According to the state-owned company, the new policy is aimed at encouraging the public to conserve energy during the four months between this month and September.
Under the new rates, households using between 110 kilowatt hours (kwh) and 330kwh per month will be charged at NT$3.02 per kwh (up from NT$2.68 in other seasons). They will be charged NT$4.05 per kwh (up from NT$3.27 in other seasons) if electricity usage is between 331kwh and 500kwh per month.
Those using between 501kwh and 700kwh per month will be charged at NT$4.51 per kwh (up from NT$3.55), while any usage higher than 701kwh per month will be charged by NT$5.1 per kwh (up from NT$3.97).
But consumers that use less than 110kwh per month will still pay NT$2.1 per kwh.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is