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Tax income up 2.6 percent

The central government's tax income saw 2.6 percent year-on-year growth to NT$102.2 billion (US$3.32 billion) last month, Ministry of Finance figures showed yesterday.

The ministry attributed last month’s growth to tax revenues from securities transactions, which saw the biggest year-on-year growth last month, gaining 29.6 percent to reach NT$11.5 billion after capital inflows flooded into the local stock market.

Tax income in the first four months accumulated to NT$406.2 billion, or 3.6 percent year-on-year growth, the ministry’s latest figures show.

Land incremental tax incomes, however, saw the biggest decline year-on-year in the first four months, dropping 26.4 percent to NT$19.7 billion amid rising land tax reports, some of which were small and tax-free, the ministry said.

Life insurance firms fined

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Thursday imposed a NT$3.6 million fine on Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co (國華人壽) for its failure to meet the capital reserve requirements in 2005.

The insurer’s former actuary Tsai Sheng-kuo (蔡聲國) is barred from working in his profession permanently.

The commission also imposed a fine of NT$1.2 million on Glo Bal Life Insurance Co (國寶人壽) and suspended its two former actuaries Wang Ming-hui (王明輝) and Yu Shao-hsian (余紹賢) for six months.

Meanwhile, the commission fined Chinfon Bank (慶豐銀行) NT$2 million for negligence in internal control after retired bank clerk Chao Kuo-chyang (趙國強) was found guilty of theft from clients’ safe deposit boxes.

UMC sales reach NT$8.52bn

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday its sales rose to NT$8.52 billion last month from NT$8.5 billion last month and were up 4.79 percent year-on-year.

Parent sales in the first four months totaled NT$32.52 billion, up 4.39 percent from the year before, the world’s second-largest wafer foundry said.

UMC said last month that its wafer shipments in the second quarter were expected to increase 10 percent from the first quarter.

Chi Mei units secure loans

Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s second-largest liquid-crystal display maker, said two of its subsidiaries secured US$1 billion in syndicated loans to help fund operations and expand locally and in China.

Leadtek Global Group Ltd (利達環球), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tainan-based Chi Mei, obtained a three-year US$870 million loan from 22 banks lead by Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Chi Mei said in a statement yesterday. The loan includes a provision for a two-year extension upon the agreement of all parties, it said.

Chi Mei Lighting Technology Corp (奇力光電), a Tainan-based subsidiary producing light-emitting diodes (LEDs), signed a separate five-year, NT$4 billion loan from 12 banks led by First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), the statement said.

Subprime losses 'very small'

Taiwanese banks’ losses from US subprime-related business amounted to about US$1.25 billion at the end of March, said Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission.

Subprime-related investments by Taiwanese financial companies totaled about US$3 billion by the end of March, representing just a “very small” portion of total assets, the commission said in a statement on its Web site that cited a speech by Hu in the US.

The impact on Taiwan of the subprime crisis is much less than for the US and Europe, the statement said.


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