Environmental groups today submitted a petition to the Executive Yuan calling on the government to stop tax relief and subsidy programs incentivizing the construction of garbage incinerators.
The Ministry of Environment (MOENV) has allowed government agencies of all levels that operate incinerators to apply the Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法) and receive five-year tax exemptions, plus further tax reductions and subsidies.
The groups called upon the Ministry of Finance and the MOENV to amend the act and further revise the definition of “major public infrastructure projects.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The Executive Yuan said that it has heard the request and would arrange for the MOENV and related agencies to review the matter.
Incineration and waste burial costs should be borne by waste producers and based on the amount of waste they generate, Taiwan Watch Institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said, calling the current tax scheme unfair and unjust.
Changhua County already has nine incinerators, yet developers continue to propose new incinerators and landfill sites, with the county processing more industrial waste than it produces, Changhua Environmental Protection Union researcher Lin Cheng-han (林政翰) said.
Profit-hungry developers are using government subsidies and tax relief programs funded by taxpayers' money, while the public suffers from the resulting pollution, he added, calling for an immediate end to the policy.
The Executive Yuan’s Department of Transportation, Environment and Natural Resources accepted the petition.
The groups and the government share the same goal of addressing waste issues, and their demands have been heard, department Deputy Director Huang Chih-yuan (黃志元) said.
The petition would be forwarded to the MOENV and relevant agencies, which would work to review the petition and resolve waste disposal issues, he added.
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
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS