The nation’s tax revenues increased 4.2 percent year-on-year to NT$1.233 trillion (US$41.49 billion) in the first eight months of the year, marking the highest level for the same period since records began, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
However, lower-than-expected revenue from securities transaction tax has been raising uncertainties as to whether full-year tax revenues will achieve the government’s goal of NT$1.822 trillion, the ministry said.
Tax revenues fell 14.4 percent last month from a year earlier to NT$99.6 billion, the ministry said in its monthly report.
“The weaker momentum on revenue from consolidated income tax, securities transaction tax and commodity tax was the main factor dragging down last month’s tax revenues,” Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference.
Revenue from the securities transaction tax slid 43.2 percent year-on-year to NT$6.1 billion last month, marking the largest drop among all taxes, Hsu said.
The NT$49.3 billion collected in the January-to-August period was the lowest level since the same period in 2005. It was down 27.5 percent from the same period the previous year, the report said.
Hsu said revenue from the securities transaction tax is unlikely to reach the NT$80 billion level this year, not to mention this year’s budgeted allocation of NT$126.5 billion.
Hsu said overall tax revenues may maintain year-on-year growth this year on the back of strong revenue from consolidated income taxes, which rose 21 percent year-on-year to NT$310.8 billion in the January-to-August period.
However, the provisional revenue from business income taxes this month will be the most important indicator to evaluate if the nation’s full-year tax revenues can achieve the government’s budget allotment, Hsu added.
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