■ Q1 LCD production soars
The first-quarter production value of the nation's liquid-crystal-display (LCD) industry jumped by 115.3 percent from a year ago to NT$171.32 billion (US$5.13 billion) this year, an official with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) reported yesterday.
The figure was made up of NT$128.68 billion generated by LCDs themselves and NT$42.65 billion from related businesses that provide key parts and components, up by 21.7 percent and 36.3 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter, the official said at a news conference.
Taiwan-made large thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD goods now enjoy a 40.2 percent share in the world market as of the end of March, up by 25.5 percent compared to the ratio posted for the fourth quarter of last year.
It is expected that the annual output value of large TFT LCD products will amount to NT$450 billion for the whole of this year, an estimated growth of 70 percent over last year's level, the official said.
■ Bank officials censured
The Control Yuan yesterday impeached three former senior staff members at the Tokyo branch of the state-owned Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) due to the branch's violations of Japanese financial rules.
The Control Yuan said Lin Hsin-hung (林信宏), a former manager at the bank's Tokyo branch, Peng Meng-hung (彭孟洪), a former deputy manager at the branch, and Wu Hung-teh (吳宏德), a former section chief at the branch, should be held responsible for the Japanese government's fining the branch ?350 million (US$3.18 million) late last year.
According to the impeachment notice, Japanese authorities discovered in May last year that the Tokyo branch had illegally listed non-official banking units (OBU) accounts as OBU accounts for five years. They also found that branch had violated Japan's interest
income tax regulations for OBU deposits on several occasions.
■ Tax revenues up 35%
The national coffers took in NT$258.8 billion worth of tax revenues last month, up 34.9 percent or an increase of NT$67 billion from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Income tax revenue rose by NT$53.2 billion last month, posting an annual growth rate of 70.5 percent compared to other sources of tax, said Hsu Kuo-chung (許國忠), head of the ministry's Department of Statistics. He attributed the expansion to delays in collecting some taxes that should have been collected last year.
Corporate tax revenues reached NT$104.5 billion, up 93 percent or an increase of NT$50.4 billion from a year ago. The stock transaction taxes amounted to NT$ 7.1 billion last month, up by NT$3.9 billion from a year ago and represents a 122.1 percent growth.
In the January-May period, the total tax revenues reached NT$644.2 billion, up 27.2 percent or a jump of NT$137.9 billion over last year's level.
■ Apollo slams Taiwan Tobacco
A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and representatives of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp's (台灣菸酒公司) labor union yesterday accused the firm of incurring improper expenditures of NT$1.2 billion (US$35.82 million) annually.
Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said that the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau -- the predecessor of the Taiwan Tobacco -- terminated its contracts with tobacco growers by compensating them to the tune of NT$1.05 million per hectare.
But the company has spent NT$900 million on purchasing the tobacco leaves from farmers who are still growing the cropand between NT$300 million and NT$400 million processing the leaves, the union representatives said.
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