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■ Tax take falls in February
The nation's total tax revenue last month amounted to NT$54 billion, a decline of NT$17.3 billion, or 24.3 percent, over the same month last year, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement Wednesday. Income tax revenue totaled NT$19.4 billion, a drop of NT$2 billion, or 9.5 percent, from a year ago. This was followed by revenue from commodity taxes which grew NT$2.1 billion, or 14.2 percent,to NT$17 billion, and tobacco and liquor taxes which rose NT$100 million, or 4.1 percent, to NT$3.8 billion. Stock transaction tax revenue amounted to NT$3.9 billion last month, down by NT$6.8 billion, or 63.8 percent, from a year ago. The ministry attributed the huge decline to fewer trading days last month due to the Lunar New Year holidays. The ministry received NT$160.9 billion in tax revenues in the first two months of the year, down by NT$7.7 billion, or 4.6 percent, from the same period last year. The January-February figures accounted for 11.7 percent of the target set for the year, according to the ministry.

■ SMC mulls Japanese machines
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路) is considering buying manufacturing equipment from Japan amid uncertainty over a planned US$769 million loan to buy American-made machines. The US Export-Import Bank has not approved the loan by several US banks to the Shanghai-based chipmaker to buy chip-making equipment from US suppliers including Applied Materials In, Novellus Systems Inc and KLA-Tencor Corp. The delay came after lobbyists for US-based Micron Technology Inc, the world's No. 2 maker of computer memory chips, argued that the loan would help boost China's chip industry and put Americans out of work. But an anonymous source familiar with the talks told Dow Jones Newswires that the Chinese chipmaker has been in talks since the start of this year with Japanese equipment vendors including Tokyo Electron Ltd.

■ High-speed railway on schedule
Taiwan's high-speed railway is on schedule to be opened on Oct. 31 this year, an official of the Bureau of High Speed Rail under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said Wednesday. Total construction for the 345km railway and facilities, including six stations, is 68.57 percent complete, the official noted. The buildings for the six high-speed rail stations, located in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung, are finished and the interiors are 57.98 percent complete. The actual rail line is 75.16 percent complete, the official said.

■ Singapore takes IT-use lead
Singapore has taken the lead in exploiting information and communication technology, said a study released Wednesday. The United States, first last year, dropped to fifth place. Singapore's rating at the top of the so-called ``networked readiness index'' was based on several factors, including quality of math and science education and low telephone and Internet pricing, said the report, which was released by the World Economic Forum. "Singapore's remarkable performance is a consequence of the government's consistent and continuous efforts" to foster the technology, the report said. The United States' drop "is less due to actual erosion in performance" than to the improvement of other countries, the report said. Iceland, in 10th place last year, moved up to second place. Finland held onto third, and Denmark rose to fourth from fifth.

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