Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
The move is designed to spur on the nation's sluggish property market.
"The top tax rate on land transactions will be permanently reduced from 60 percent to 40 percent, pending a future legislative approval," Lin said at the legislature yesterday.
The minister said that he hopes to kick in the new measure as early as next January. But if the proposal's legislation can't be completed in time, the ministry may plan to extend the government's previous policy that halved the tax for "another period of time," Lin said, without specifying the time length.
"The new tax proposal will be finalized by the end of March and submitted to the Cabinet for review," Lin said.
In late 2001, then premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
The new tax scheme took effect early last year and is expected to come to an end next January.
If ministry's new tax scheme fails to meet the January deadline, KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) yesterday proposed prolonging the current scheme until January 2005. The proposal was also endorsed by several other legislators.
In response, Lin said that his ministry needs time to further study all of the possibilities, reiterating that a final decision will be made by the end of this month.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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