• Mon   • Dec 9, 2013   • Updated: 2:21am  Tobacco tax increase
must not be voted down  PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 April, 2011,
12:00am UPDATED : Tuesday, 14 August, 2012, 8:46am  On the day
Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen resumed the debate to
complete the budget's controversial journey through the
legislature, he pledged the administration will not become a
mere 'caretaker government' while it completes its term due to
end next year. If the promise is to be kept, officials must
first dig themselves out of the hole created by this year's
budget, which seems to get ever deeper. Taxing people, only to
give them back the cash, is not the soundest public finance
policy, although this has become the standard political response
to demands from the public whenever there is a big surplus. But
the latest twist in the budget saga could see the government
taxing smokers, only to then give some of those proceeds back to
the tobacco industry. This bizarre outcome could occur if
legislators vote down the tobacco tax in