The Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 全國工業總會) yesterday voiced strong opposition to a planned tax increase on retained earnings.
The umbrella trade group, which consists of 153 industrial associations nationwide, said the plan to increase the tax on companies’ retained earnings from 10 percent to 15 percent runs counter to the government’s effort to make the nation more business friendly, CNFI vice chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said.
“We’re shocked at the move to introduce the tax increase, which has the support of the Ministry of Finance,” Hsu told a press conference.
The tax bill is awaiting its second and third readings after being passed by the legislature’s Finance Committee in March.
The ministry has said the tax increase would help encourage firms to distribute dividends and offset social unfairness and injustice caused by tax cuts favorable to companies, but Hsu, also chairman of Kinpo Group (金仁寶集團), which includes contract notebook computer maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and mobile phone operator Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信), said medium and small companies need the earnings to strengthen their working capital or fund investment plans.
“Regular capital increase plans are less flexible in meeting investment needs because they require more time and higher capital costs,” Hsu said.
The CNFI urged the government to rethink the tax increase, warning that the bill would hamper companies’ development and contradict the government’s efforts to attract foreign investors.
CNFI chairman Preston Chen (陳武雄), who owns business interests in the petrochemical industry, pressed the government to come up with a fair and consistent petrochemical policy or his firm and its peers would be forced to move their businesses overseas in order to survive.
Chen said Changhua County last year welcomed a planned naphtha cracker complex, the Kuokuang Petrochemical project (國光石化), but backed off this year for political reasons.
The controversial project was a joint investment by state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan (臺灣中油) and the private sector.
“Perhaps it would be better to only allow the nation’s president to serve one term to spare the government from re-election pressures and policy U-turns,” Chen said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the