The Taiwan Securities Association yesterday pressed the government to quit pushing for a capital gains tax on securities investments, saying the move is hurting efforts to boost the economy.
The plea came amid plans by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-dominated legislature to pass the bill in a special session next week.
“The legislation is deepening unease at a time when Europe’s fiscal debt problems remain unsolved while economies in the US and China slow,” the association said in a statement.
The government should give top priority to invigorating the economy, which is in danger of expanding by less than 2 percent this year, according to Academia Sinica’s forecast yesterday morning, it said.
Meanwhile, foreign funds are pulling out of the local bourse, hurting the share prices of major technology firms and investor confidence as evidenced by shrinking turnover, further jeopardizing the local market’s fund-raising functions, the group said.
Since the government revived the tax proposal in March, the TAIEX has shed 13.86 percent, while daily trading volume declined 49.75 percent and NT$2.64 trillion evaporated from the overall market value, the association said.
If they have to support the tax, lawmakers should revise the bill to ease the potential impact on individual investors, the association said.
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