The nation’s tax revenue dropped 1.1 percent annually in the first eight months, increasing the odds of missing the government’s budget target of collecting NT$1.8637 trillion (US$62.62 billion), the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Tax revenue fell to NT$1.2204 trillion in the January-to-August period of this year, from NT$1.31 trillion in the same period of last year, after revenue decreased by 8.4 percent year-on-year to NT$91.2 billion last month, the ministry said in a statement.
“The results of the first eight months showed quite a discrepancy compared with the government’s target,” the ministry’s statistics department deputy director Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳) told a press conference.
The government has targeted a 3.7 percent year-on-year growth for tax revenue this year, or up NT$67 billion, from the NT$1.7967 trillion collected last year.
The nation may report a shortfall of NT$80 billion in tax revenue this year, on the assumption that revenue over the remaining four months would be flat from last year, Hsu said.
Business income tax and land value tax would be the key factors to watch in the coming months, Hsu said.
He did not have high hopes for the taxes though, due to the recent instable macroeconomy.
“It will not be a bad result if tax revenue collected in the rest of the year remains flat compared to a year ago,” he said.
Hsu blamed lower-than-expected revenue on last year’s sluggish economy, which reduced collections of the business income tax, the consolidated income tax and the securities transaction tax.
Revenue from business income tax fell by NT$20.2 billion to NT$221.7 billion in the first eight months from a year earlier, due to weak corporate profits last year, the statement said.
Meanwhile, revenue from the consolidated income tax totaled NT$300.9 billion during the January-to-August period, down NT$9.9 billion from a year earlier, the ministry’s data showed.
Revenue from the securities transaction tax in the first eight months also saw an annual decline of 6.2 percent to NT$46.2 billion, a far cry from the annual target of NT$96.4 billion set by the government, statistics showed.
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