■ Tax revenues up
The treasury took in NT$114.5 billion (US$3.48 billion) worth of taxes last month, a 76.2 percent jump from a year ago, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The biggest increase came from income tax revenues, which rose NT$50.5 billion, or 216.5 percent, from a year ago as the deadline for business income tax collection was delayed to early last month, said Lee Li-shu (李麗雪), director of the statistics department.
Income from commodity tax shrank by 16.9 percent to NT$12.3 billion last month due to the sluggish auto market.
For the first 10 months of the year, tax revenues hit NT$1.36 trillion, up by 2.3 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said.
The figure accounts for 92.8 percent of the target set for the whole year. Tax revenues this year are expected to surpass the government's target by around NT$80 billion, or around 7 percent to 8 percent, Lee added.
■ MediaTek plans venture
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world's biggest supplier of chips used in DVD players, yesterday said it planned to spend US$1 million in building a software development company in Beijing to better serve its customers.
Diversifying into the handset chip industry several years ago, MediaTek now supplies chips to some of China's leading mobile phone vendors, such as Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and TCL.
Merrill Lynch expects MediaTek to increase its handset chip sales to US$700 million this year from US$360 million last year, partly due to Chinese handset makers regaining market share from global brands such as Nokia Oyj.
■ Formosa raises prices
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's second-biggest fuel supplier, raised gasoline and diesel prices, matching an increase by larger rival Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油).
Domestic wholesale gasoline prices rose by NT$0.40 a liter and those of diesel climbed by NT$0.50, effective 11am, Mailiao-based Formosa Petrochemical said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
■ Yieh to invest in Pingtung
Yieh United Steel Corp (YUSCO, 燁聯), the largest integrated stainless steel mill in Southeast Asia, will invest up to NT$20 billion (US$620 million) in an industrial park in Pingtung County, County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) said yesterday.
In a report to the county council, Tsao said that YUSCO Chairman Lin Yi-shou (林義守) has agreed to build two steel mills in the Pingnan Industrial Park. Construction will begin in two weeks and is scheduled for completion in two-and-a-half years, he added.
YUSCO's investment projects will occupy 30 hectares of land and will employ some 1,000 workers, Tsao said.
The company recruits about 1,500 employees with total investment exceeding NT$40 billion.
■ Chunghwa sees sales dip
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's largest provider of telephone services, posted a sales decline of 0.5 percent last month.
Revenue fell to NT$15.24 billion (US$464 million) from NT$15.32 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales in September were NT$15.69 billion.
Cumulative sales for the first 10 months of this year increased to NT$152.7 billion from NT$152.2 billion, the statement said.
■ NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar weakened against its US counterpart yesterday, due to strong demand for the US dollar from oil importers and insurance companies, dealers said.
The NT dollar declined NT$0.029 to close at NT$32.869 on turnover of US$783 million.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last