The Ministry of Finance yesterday began publishing a monthly Web-based “Local Government Debt Clock” to remind local government agencies to watch their spending, with total public debt standing at NT$814.86 billion (US$27.18 billion) as of the end of last month.
Residents in Kaohsiung shouldered the heaviest debt burden, with public debt totaling NT$212.94 billion at the end of last month, translating into NT$76,700 per capita, the highest level among all local governments, ministry data showed.
The Miaoli County Government posted the second-highest debt with NT$71,000 per person, followed by the Taipei City Government with NT$62,000 per capita, statistics showed.
However, long-term debt — outstanding debt with a maturity of more than one year — for Yilan County, Miaoli County and Hsinchu at the end of May accounted for 70.57 percent, 57.59 percent and 49.14 percent of local authorities’ annual expenditure respectively, exceeding the statutory debt ceiling of 45 percent, a National Treasury Agency statement showed.
These results indicated that these three local governments posted the worst financial conditions of all, the agency said.
In related news, tax revenues increased 8.9 percent year-on-year to NT$342.2 billion, bringing overall revenue for the first six months to NT$1.045 trillion, up 4.8 percent year-on-year, the ministry said in its monthly report yesterday.
The NT$1.045 trillion level accounted for 106.2 percent of budget allotment, reflecting tax revenue had been higher than expected in the first half, the report said.
“The strong performance of individual income tax was the main driver raising overall tax revenues,” Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference.
Revenue from individual income tax rose 21.9 percent year-on-year to NT$275.1 billion in the first six months, marking the highest level ever recorded for that period, the report’s data showed.
However, securities transaction tax revenues marked the lowest level since 2005 to total NT$38.3 billion in the first half, down NT$10.8 billion, or 22 percent, from the previous year, marking the sharpest fall among all tax brackets, data showed.
Hsu said the ministry remained optimistic that tax revenues could reach the government’s goal of NT$1.823 trillion, but securities transaction tax revenues might fail to achieve the ministry’s budget allotment at NT$126.5 billion this year.
To find a comprehensive solution to national financial problems, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) led the ministry’s task force on national taxation and finance in their first meeting in Kaohsiung yesterday.
Chang said the ministry is focusing on possible measures to activate state-owned assets by operating models of build-operate-transfer and private-finance-initiative over the next four years.
“The ministry expects to launch 20 projects under these two models in four years,” Chang told reporters after the meeting.
The successful execution of the proposed projects might raise national coffers by NT$30 billion a year, Chang added.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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