Taiwan To Reduce Rice Wine Import Duties In Line With WTO Guidelines

Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

21 April 2009

A first reading of an amended tax law was passed last Thursday to reduce the duty levied on local and imported rice wine, a staple ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. It was decided that the tax will be levied according to the alcohol content of the product at TWD2.5 per degree of alcohol per liter.

The cheaper rice wine should be on sale as early as May once the amendment clears the legislature.

A resolution was also passed that the cost of a bottle of rice wine should not exceed TWD 50 even if this means that rice wine will be sold below cost price, it being believed that this is the best way to eradicate the common practice of buying much cheaper bootleg rice wine instead of the legal product.

A spokesman in the wine trade said that only a price range of between NT$58 and NT$60 per bottle would be acceptable.

Since 2003, following Taiwan's entry into the World Trade Organization, duty on rice wine had been levied at TWD 185 per liter tax in line with WTO tax regulations on distilled spirits.

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