Tax on outdoor ads

Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin said the act aims to make Taipei City a tidier, greener and more beautiful city. The bill is drafted before a similar landscape act is passed by the central government. It will be first of its kind in the nation, he said.

The bill states that all large-scale advertising billboards — advertisements on facades that are longer than three meter, hanging signs that are longer than six meters, standing billboards on the ground or roofs that are taller than six meters, and electronic hoardings — have to apply for permission and pay a fee. There will also be an annual landscape impact fee equals to 0.2 percent of the revenue.

Also, all items on the exterior of buildings — including window frames, air conditioning vents, wires, etc. — will be regulated by the bill.

Violating the regulations would subject to a fine between NT$60,000 and NT$100,000. The fees will go into the Landscape Protection Fund, which was set up to beautify Taipei City.

Taipei city councilor Liu Yao-ren disapproved of the bill. He criticized that the draft is an excuse for the government to take money from people. He said the fees are unnecessary as there are already regulations governing outdoor advertisements.

Another councilor, Wang Chih-bing, found the bill absurd. She said if the advertisements have a bad impact on the city's appearance, the government should not permit them. If the bill is passed, that would mean that after paying the landscape impact fee the companies have the rights to harm the beauty of the city.

“It's not about setting up new fees,” she said. “Does that mean that if they pay, no matter what impact the advertisements have on the city's appearance, they don't have to be removed?”

Other lawmakers are concerned that whether the bill would violate the property rights of the owners. There are also worries that if the bill is not precise enough, it will be hard to define if the graphics and words of the advertisements have a bad impact on the cityscape.

The bill will be passed by early next year soonest. It will be implemented first in strategic landscapes, including natural environments, tourist attractions, streets and squares with special significance, monuments, historical sites, and tribal areas.

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