Taiwan’s government will implement a raft of new regulations in 2023, with changes affecting food labeling laws and the arrivals process for some migrant workers, as well as the introduction of a new lay judge system.
CNA has compiled some of the more notable changes below:
Age of majority lowered to 18
Taiwan’s legal age of adulthood will be lowered from 20 to 18, meaning that 18-year-olds will be able to buy smartphones, rent apartments and sign contracts.
However, people will still need to be 20-years-old to open futures trading accounts or vote in elections.
Minimum wage hike
Taiwan’s minimum monthly and hourly wages will increase by 4.55 percent and 4.76 percent, respectively, with effect from Jan. 1.
The increase will raise the minimum monthly wage from NT$25,250 to NT$26,400 and the minimum hourly wage from NT$168 to NT$176, according to the Ministry of Labor, whose Minimum Wage Review Committee proposed the adjustments in September.
Childrearing benefits
The government will end rules that prohibited some wealthy individuals from claiming the childrearing allowance (????) and childcare subsidies (????), benefiting an estimated 41,900 families.
Previously, only families that paid less than 20 percent annual income tax — those who earn under NT$1.21 million (US$39,383) per year — qualified for the childrearing allowance.
Currently in Taiwan, families with a child under the age of 5, or aged 5 and enrolled at a school, are eligible to receive a monthly NT$5,000 childrearing allowance.
Meanwhile, families with children under 2 years old who attend public daycare centers can receive a childcare subsidy of NT$5,500 per month, while those with kids at quasi-public care centers receive NT$8,500 per child.
For children ages 2-5 attending public, nonprofit or quasi-public preschools, monthly subsidies for tuition fees are capped at NT$3,000, under current rules.
Food labeling
A new regulation introduced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will require convenience stores, tea shops and other retailers to disclose the caffeine content of any freshly made beverages.
The FDA has encouraged retailers to use a color-coded system in which red indicates total caffeine content of over 200 milligrams, yellow means 100-200 mg of caffeine, and green means under 100 mg of caffeine.
The information can be displayed on a menu or nutritional info card, or via electronic means such as a QR code, according to the agency.
Meanwhile, Taiwan will also begin mandating the use of traceability labeling for all tea leaves produced in the country, in order to curb the practice of false labeling or the mixing of imported tea with local products.
Under the regulations, tea leaves which list Taiwan as the country of origin will have to carry one of the following: (1) a certified organic label; (2) a traceability code from the Taiwan Agriculture and Food Traceability System; or (3) a Traceability Agriculture and Food Products Retrospective System QR code.
Reusable cup services
New EPA rules will require at least 5 percent of convenience store and fast food chains in Taiwan to offer reusable cup services in 2023.
That number will rise to 10 percent in 2024 and 30 percent in 2025, according to the agency.
Under the policy, stores can ask customers to pay a security deposit to use a reusable cup, which is refunded if the cup is returned to any of the store chain’s service locations within three days.
COVID-19 medical costs
Taiwan’s government will stop covering the COVID-19-related medical expenses of foreign nationals without National Health Insurance (NHI) cards from next year.
Under the rules, however, the government will continue to pay such medical costs for Taiwanese – with or without national health insurance – and foreign nationals who have NHI cards, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
New arrivals process for live-in migrant workers
Foreign domestic helpers and family-based caregivers entering Taiwan in the new year will be subject to a new arrivals process, in which they undergo training and receive their identity documents and local insurance card at one of two “migrant workers one-stop service centers.”
Upon arrival in Taiwan, the workers will be picked up by Ministry of Labor (MOL) representatives and taken to a service center in Taoyuan or Kaohsiung to attend an eight-hour orientation course over two days, with free accommodation provided.
After completing the course, they will receive their employment permits, alien resident certificates (ARC), national health insurance (NHI) cards and be signed up for occupational accident insurance.
On the third day, the workers will be picked up by their employers or labor brokerage firms and be allowed to begin work immediately during the seven-day self-health management period, as long as they have their own bedroom and bathroom and test negative for COVID-19 every day.
The MOL said the new one-stop service is expected to cover around 50,000 migrant domestic helpers and family-based caregivers and their employers annually, and will next be extended to fishery workers.
Lay judge system
A lay judge system allowing ordinary Taiwanese to take part in the adjudication of certain types of criminal trials will also be rolled out in 2023.
The system, established by the Citizen Judges Act in 2020, will allow for collegiate benches of three career judges and six citizen judges to review cases involving premeditated crimes that resulted in death (from 2023) and criminal cases warranting a prison term of at least 10 years (from 2026).
Lay judges, however, may not hear cases involving minors or drug-related charges.
People can be randomly selected to serve as a lay judge if they are at least 23 years old, have graduated from high school, and have lived within a court’s jurisdiction for at least four months.
People with criminal records cannot serve as lay judges, while members of certain professions, such as those working in law, the military or police, are exempted.
School teachers, students, people aged 70 and above and people with legitimate reasons such as family matters, health concerns or work obligations can also request to be exempted from the duty.
Under the Citizen Judges Act, at least two-thirds of the nine judges, including at least one professional judge, must find the defendant guilty for a guilty verdict to be handed down, and the same two-thirds majority including a professional judge is needed to hand down the death penalty.
All other sentences must be determined by a majority of at least five of the nine judges, including one professional judge.
Tax rebates for energy-saving appliances
A tax rebate of NT$3,000 will be offered for each newly purchased refrigerator or air conditioner that meets a Level 1 energy-saving standard under the Bureau of Energy’s (BOE) energy efficiency rating system.
According to the BOE, people wishing to claim the rebate should ask the company representative who installs the new appliance and removes the old one to provide an Environmental Protection Administration appliance recycling form.
They can then go to the designated energy-efficient appliance tax rebate website (https://??????.tw) to complete the application process any time after Feb. 1, 2023.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel