The government last month collected NT$76.8 billion (US$2.71 billion) in tax revenue, down 2.7 percent from February last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday, attributing the retreat to lower revenue from securities transaction and sales taxes.
Securities transaction tax revenue was NT$11 billion, down 13.9 percent year-on-year, as daily turnover shrank 9 percent to NT$362.9 billion, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng (陳玉豐) said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and expectations of the US Federal Reserve increasing interest rates drove investors to the sidelines, Chen said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
Foreign portfolio managers have cut holdings in local shares, as they are concerned about fuel and grain price increases exacerbating supply chain disruptions and weighing on corporate profits.
However, most Taiwanese tech and non-tech firms posted hefty year-on-year revenue increases for January and last month, and are expecting month-on-month revenue increases for this month, after last month had fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
The Financial Supervisory Commission has said that the local bourse is expected to lose trading momentum this year, as global central banks would phase out favorable programs intended to mitigate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most Western countries have chosen to tolerate the virus, it said.
Sales tax revenue was NT$10.7 billion, down 29.4 percent year-on-year, as the government cut the sales tax on oil and diesel imports to ease inflationary pressures, and component shortages weighed on automakers, the ministry said.
Personal income tax revenue jumped 33.3 percent to NT$9.3 billion and corporate income tax revenue rose 89.9 percent to NT$5.3 billion, it said, attributing the trend to year-end bonuses.
Revenue from land value increment tax gained 0.9 percent to NT$7.2 billion, as taxable cases picked up 1.9 percent, it said.
For the first two months, overall tax revenue expanded 5.1 percent to NT$280 billion, ahead of the budget schedule by 11.3 percent, the ministry said.
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
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