The Ministry of Finance has announced that it will stop releasing this year statistics on the ratio between highest and lowest-income groups, based on data of consolidated income tax declarations, to avoid “misunderstandings” on the part of the media and public.
The announcement by the Fiscal Information Agency last month has been criticized by local media, which question whether the ministry plans to conceal what the media says is the deteriorating national income gap.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) currently issues an annual report on the ratio between the richest 20 percent of families and the poorest 20 percent — a major public indicator that is used internationally.
The ratio in 2012 was 7.7, the widest gap since 2007, DGBAS data showed.
Originally, the ministry had provided the ratios between the richest and poorest 5 and 10 percent of Taiwanese households, based on data of the annual consolidated income tax declaration, mainly for research use by taxation experts.
In 2011, the average declared income of the nation’s richest 5 percent of families was 96 times that of the poorest 5 percent, and showed a rising trend over the past few years, the DGBAS said.
“Tax declaration data cannot reflect households’ real disposable income because there are some non-taxable income sources that are not required to be reported,” Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) told a media briefing yesterday, in response to criticism by the media.
“The move is to minimize the public’s misunderstanding and the incorrect citations used by certain media outlets,” Chang added.
Despite the criticisms, the ministry is sticking to its decision, saying it will consider releasing the statistics again if data from other major global economies is shared on the same comparison basis.
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