Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) declined to say yesterday whether Taiwan would consider taxing “hot money” from abroad, which has reportedly flooded the local market in recent days on the back of a rising NT dollar.
Lee said during a legislative session that the hot money issue is a matter for the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission, but it could be discussed by the relevant agencies.
The government will draw on the experience of other countries before making any decision on the issue, he said, adding that Brazil is the only country that taxes hot money.
Lee was responding to a lawmaker’s question on whether the Ministry of Finance would consider taking measures, such as the imposition of a tax, to stem the flow of hot money.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the ministry should make its stance on the matter known in light of the influx of the money.
The finance minister was also asked to expand on Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) recent comment that civil servants could expect a pay rise next year.
He said the exact date for the salary increase had not yet been finalized, but in view of the economic recovery, the ministry would make a decision in line with the expectations of the public.
Speaking about a bill that was passed by the legislature’s Finance Committee in May that would scrap income tax exemptions for military personnel and teachers at public elementary and junior high schools, Lee said if it was passed soon it would generate about NT$11.2 billion (US$373 million) in extra tax revenues a year.
If the Income Tax Act (所得稅法) amendment is passed, it will affect about 370,000 workers in the public sector, who would begin to pay income tax in 2012, he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day