The Ministry of Finance yesterday said it collected NT$210 billion (US$6.88 billion) in tax revenue for last month, a 1.7 percent increase from last year, driven by revenue from securities transactions.
Tax revenue from securities transactions increased 29.8 percent to NT$8.9 billion last month, as average daily market turnover increased 19.89 percent to NT$154.9 billion, the ministry said.
Since September, foreign capital has flowed into the local bourse as investors take advantage of stable GDP growth in Taiwan, while other economies in the region have taken a hit from US-China trade tensions and other macroeconomic uncertainties.
The upward trend has continued this month, propelling the TAIEX yesterday to a 29-year high of 11,700.77 points, as foreign institutional players increased positions by a net NT$4.05 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
In the first 11 months of the year, tax revenue from securities transactions totaled NT$82.2 billion, down 12.3 percent from a year earlier, ministry data showed.
Business tax revenue increased NT$2.7 billion, while tax revenue from land value gains rose NT$1.6 billion, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng (陳玉豐) said.
An increase in property gains was seen even though the number of taxable properties fell 4.3 percent to 47,301, Chen said, adding that higher tax revenue helped account for positive growth.
The government collected NT$2.33 trillion in tax revenue in the first 11 months, ahead of its budget target for this year by 3.4 percent, Chen said.
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