The government last month received NT$159 billion (US$4.91 billion) in tax revenue, a 21 percent increase from a year earlier, thanks mainly to stock and property transactions, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.
Tax revenue from securities transactions spiked more than twofold to NT$25.8 billion, as daily turnover last month soared 76 percent year-on-year to NT$467.5 billion, the ministry’s monthly report showed.
“Last month saw the TAIEX going through wild ups and downs linked to an ongoing AI [artificial intelligence] frenzy and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s [TSMC, 台積電] conservative outlook about peers,” ministry statistics official Liu Shun-rong (劉訓蓉) told an online news conference.
Photo: CNA
As a result, the local exchange shed more than 1,000 points after TSMC’s earnings guidance, but staged rapid rebounds days later, Liu said, adding that investors by and large remain positive about the business opportunities fast-growing AI applications would bring, Liu said.
Taiwan is home to the world’s major suppliers of advanced chips, high-end servers, storage, and memory devices used in AI infrastructure and solutions.
At the same time, tax revenue from land value gains rose 44.2 percent to NT$7.5 billion on the back of property transactions, Liu said.
Property deals in the nation’s six special municipalities soared 43 percent year-on-year to 22,900 units last month, supported by a government interest subsidy and other favorable lending terms for first-home purchases.
However, the property market could slow a bit moving forward, as the low base effect would increasingly fade away and the central bank’s interest rate hike in March would help rein in buying interest, Liu said.
Cumulative tax revenues in the first four months of the year totaled NT$716.5 billion, suggesting a 15.8 percent pickup from the same time last year and exceeding the government’s target by 15.7 percent, the ministry said.
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