Yacht builders yesterday urged the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to stop listing yachts as luxury items, saying the government has been shooting itself in the foot by trying to promote the recreational marine industry while levying a special sales levy on yachts.
“Yachts should be considered a consumer product rather than property or a luxury product that can be used for speculative profit. More importantly, the industry creates jobs and could be an integral part of Taiwan’s development of the recreational marine industry,” Taiwan Yacht Industry Association (TYIA) president John Lu (呂佳揚) said.
Lu headed a TYIA delegation that visited the Legislative Yuan yesterday and met with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucuses as well as Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to present their appeal.
Photo: CNA
The yacht builders said prospects have been expanding for the recreational marine industry since the lifting of martial law, which had kept all the nation’s coastlines and waters off-limits, as well as amendments to the Ships Act (船舶法) and other related laws in recent years.
Taiwan is the world’s sixth-largest yacht manufacturer, with annual revenues of US$250 million, the association said.
However, the industry’s full potential has been held back by a special sales tax of 10 percent on luxury goods, such as yachts and airplanes that are worth at least NT$3 million (US$100,000).
The tax has not only dealt a blow to the yacht-building business, a formerly flourishing industry that has been hurt by the global economic slowdown, but has also affected employment opportunities and failed to bring in substantial tax revenue, Lu said.
The government has only collected NT$5 million in “luxury tax” from yacht buyers, he said.
“However, every order for a new yacht could create 100 jobs,” he added.
Tanaya Yachts president Chiu Nan-hai (邱南海) said the yacht-building industry has made great contributions to Taiwan and extended the nation’s competitiveness.
Responding to the appeal, Taxation Agency Deputy Director-General Hsu Tzu-mei (許慈美) said the Ministry of Finance is reviewing the luxury tax and welcomed the builders’ opinions.
However, Hsu added that the ministry said during a policy deliberation that the tax does not hurt local business prospects because a majority of Taiwan-made yachts are sold to foreign customers.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS