"Levying more taxes on the general public while opening big holes to inject capital into the bank bailout fund, BOT (build-operate-transfer) projects and military weapons procurements is a questionable policy," Shia said.
He urged the government to take into consideration the different welfare structures and economic circumstances in this country and other nations before trying to follow international trends.
However, Tseng said that raising the value-added tax, as opposed to income taxes, is acceptable -- from a professional point of view -- given that advanced nations are working to increase their consumption tax
Compared with an OECD member nation's average consumption tax of 20 percent, Taiwan does have some room to adjust its tax, Tseng said.
"The main point is that President Chen should have the guts to sacrifice the interests of the minority by levying a minimum tax on rich people and companies in order to narrow the widening gap between rich and poor," he said.
"That being done, imposing a higher value-added tax will not incur a strong backlash because the general public will believe the government is sincere in promoting equitable taxation," he said.
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