A tax incentive package to encourage purchases of energy-efficient home appliances that is set to expire on June 14 would be extended by an additional two years, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday.
The ministry has proposed a draft amendment to the Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例) that would extend the tax breaks on select energy-saving appliances until June 14, 2023.
Article 11-1 of the act stipulates that a commodity tax cut of up to NT$2,000 (US$70.58) would be given for purchases of new refrigerators, air conditioners or dehumidifiers that meet either Level 1 or 2 energy-saving standard specified under the Bureau of Energy’s energy-efficiency rating program from June 15, 2019, to June 14 this year.
Photo: Wu Pei-hua, Taipei Times
The incentive has contributed greatly to energy savings and carbon emissions reduction, while reducing electricity bills for consumers, the ministry said.
The draft amendment is subject to a 20-day public comment period starting yesterday, it added.
Ministry of Economic Affairs statistics showed that 10 years or older air conditioners and refrigerators account for 42.72 percent of those used in homes in Taiwan, prompting the finance ministry to propose extending the incentive.
As of the end of last year, 2.657 million applications for tax deductions had been filed, which translates into NT$4.47 billion in tax rebates, finance ministry statistics showed.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS