Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (
The issue of reinstating the two groups' taxpayer status has been mulled for more than 20 years but has encountered various obstacles.
However a resolution seemed at hand with the Ministry of Education's recent announcement that it has completed a list of complementary measures to facilitate the plan. The Ministry of National Defense finalized its version a long time ago.
Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
"I can say with cautious optimism, we'll drum up the necessary support from the legislative caucuses and the amendments will pass three readings during the current legislative session," the minister said, adding that the regulation change could increase tax revenue by NT$15 billion (US$457 million).
A proposal to levy an energy tax, which will be tagged on the current commodity tax and vehicle fuel fees, and reforms of the inheritance and gift taxes will be postponed to the next legislative session, Ho said.
Late last month, Premier Su Tseng-chang (
His comment came after rumors were spread that the La New Bears, which won this year's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) championship, will be sold off because of financial difficulties.
Asked about the ministry's preparations, Ho said it requires careful study and that the ministry would respect any proposals submitted by the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the top government organization in charge of sports.
"Baseball has a positive effect on our society and now would be the right time to offer some encouragement," Ho said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to