In early days, Chinese people did not use passports to enter or exit the country. The passport was treated as an official certificate for imported goods in the Qing Dynasty. In 1944, the ROC government declared Passport Statute, defining the passport as a certificate for people to exit the country and that it should be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the central government moved to Taiwan, in order to control the import and export of goods, the government renamed the certificate for allowing import and export of goods as“Import/Export Permit”.

During the Qing Dynasty, the government levied tonnage dues on import cargo ships, which were used for construction and maintenance of lighthouses and navigation service. Such levy is now called navigation aid service fee.