Opposition parties in the legislature yesterday cut the annual budget of the Cabinet's National Development Fund (
"Most of [the fund's] investments in high-tech start-ups are not worthwhile," People First Party legislator Norman Yin (
The budget cut is expected to negatively impact the Ministry of Finance's plan to relax restrictions on the nation's venture capitalists, who will be allowed to expand their business scope in the near future.
"We'll first discuss the budget cut's impact with the fund's committee before coming up with a proposal [to restore the budget]," Finance Minister Lin Chuan (
According to Vice Minister of Finance Yang Tze-kaing (
Currently, most of the nation's venture capitalists are bound by the Development Fund's (
However, the to-be-announced relaxation of the regulations will allow venture capitalists to invest in the service sector, Yang told a press conference late last month.
In addition, the ministry plans to sell its shares in blue-chip Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
Next year's share sale is expected to bring in revenues of NT$45 billion in total to the government coffers, Lin said in his report.
According to the ministry's estimates, the selling price of TSMC shares will be NT$71.
Meanwhile, the ministry yesterday finalized a new tax-cut proposal that lowers the transaction tax on futures contracts by up to 60 percent.
According to Lin, transaction tax rates on stock-index futures contracts (
Interest-rate futures contracts, to be launched next month, will be levied with a transaction tax of between NT$6 to NT$13 per contract.
"The tax-cut proposal aims to boost the development of futures markets, which may end up increasing tax revenue for the government if more contracts are made," Lin told a press conference late yesterday evening.
The new tax-cut proposal will immediately take effect after receiving approval from the Executive Yuan and the legislature.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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