Tax revenues up last month
The national treasury collected NT$392.8 billion (US$13.09 billion) in tax revenues last month, up NT$109.1 billion, or 38.5 percent from a year ago, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The biggest increase was recorded in income tax revenues, which rose NT$111.2 billion, or 50.2 percent, to NT$332.5 billion, Hsu Ray-lin (�?Y), deputy director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a media briefing.
Securities transaction tax revenues fell 36.9 percent to NT$7.38 billion last month, Hsu said.
He said revenues from commodity tax amounted to NT$11.52 billion last month, down 28.7 percent year-on-year.
For the first six months of the year, tax revenues reached NT$1.48 trillion, up 9.2 percent from a year ago. The figure accounts for 61.2 percent of the government target set for the whole year, Hsu said.
Polaris sales down 90 percent
Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券), the nation’s largest online brokerage, said sales fell 90 percent last month from a year ago as global concerns over credit losses and surging energy costs hit the domestic market.
Sales last month fell to NT$66.9 million from NT$653.3 million a year earlier, the brokerage said in a statement yesterday to the Taiwan stock exchange.
Polaris shares fell 0.3 percent to close at NT$15.30, the lowest in more than six months, before the statement was released. The stock has tumbled 33 percent since the start of May, when prosecutors raided Polaris offices amid a probe into allegations it paid too much for a unit it bought from executives four years ago.
Polaris chairman Wayne Pai (白文正) was found dead in an apparent suicide last week after he was questioned by prosecutors and newspapers alleged that he had bought an honorary degree.
AmCham has new president
Tung Tai-chin (童台琴), chairwoman of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei, introduced the organization’s new president, Andrea Wu (吳王小珍), to its members at a cocktail reception held in Taipei on Tuesday, AmCham said in a press release yesterday.
Wu said she would promote AmCham’s mission of fostering improvements in the business environment and standard of living.
Prior to her AmCham appointment, Wu was general manager of United Airlines. She replaces outgoing AmCham president Richard Vuylsteke, who left at the end of February to head AmCham in Hong Kong.
Wu served as vice chairwoman of the chamber for two years before becoming the first female chair in 2004.
Exchange to open next year
A pan-Asian commodity derivatives exchange based in Singapore aims to start trading early next year, the Indian firm spearheading the project said yesterday.
The Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will offer electronic futures trading in a wide array of products including energy and metals, said the Indian firm, Financial Technologies.
With an initial capitalization of US$37 million, it is expected to open in the first quarter of next year, Financial Technologies said.
The announcement comes after Hong Kong, widely seen as Singapore’s main commercial rival in the region, announced plans last month to start a commodities exchange early next year.
NT dollar declines in trading
The NT dollar dropped against the greenback on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, falling NT$0.002 to close at NT$30.399.
A total of US$595 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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