Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors yesterday berated city government officials over a proposed property tax cut that would reduce costs for construction companies selling houses.
During a question-and-answer session with Department of Finance Director Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮), KMT Taipei City Councilor Wu Shih-cheng (吳世正) ripped into a proposal by the department that says the policy would motivate firms to sell houses more quickly.
“It is difficult to determine whether selling houses means stockpiling them. The rule was proposed to prevent high tax rates from negatively affecting the real-estate market and to motivate builders to sell houses more quickly,” the document says.
Wu criticized what he said was fallacious reasoning in the proposal, saying that the proposed tax reduction would eliminate motivation to sell houses at reduced prices, preventing Taipei’s steep property prices from declining.
The tax cut would save construction companies about NT$95 million (US$2.86 million) within the first year of its implementation, thereby easing the financial burden they carry, he said.
Construction companies have withheld 6,364 houses in Taipei, Wu said, adding that the city government should pressure the firms to sell the houses as quickly as possible, giving opportunities to the 20 percent of Taipei residents who do not own one.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Li Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) said former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) raised property taxes in Taipei last year to drive real-estate prices down, but Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has run counter to Hau’s policy by attempting to push the tax cut through.
Li Keng said that Ko in January reportedly met with representatives from 15 construction companies, which paved the way for a tax reduction.
Li Keng said the tax cut is counterproductive to a city government revenue goal for next year — to boost revenue generated from land appreciation taxation from NT$17.6 billion to NT$18.2 billion — as it would slow the real-estate market, resulting in fewer transactions.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝) said that Su should submit a roster of officials involved in wrtiting the tax cut policy and deliver it to her office by Tuesday next week.
The Taipei City Council procedure section said the proposed reduction would be reviewed on Wednesday next week at the earliest.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports. The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477. The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman. The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said. On July 24,
More than half of Taiwan’s middle-aged population, those aged between 40 and 64, have at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar — and an unhealthy waist size, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said, adding that more than 30 percent also have metabolic syndrome. The HPA, the Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation and local health departments are cooperating to encourage people to regularly measure their waist circumference and keep it at a healthy size — no more than 90cm for adult men and no more than 80cm for adult women. Taichung Veterans General
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
RSS