The Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 全國工業總會) yesterday urged the government to cut taxes and red tape to encourage overseas Taiwanese businesses to return or invest or list on the local bourses.
“CNFI supports lowering taxes on the poor but a cut in inheritance tax is necessary,” CNFI chairman Preston Chen (陳武雄) told reporters yesterday after a luncheon with government officials.
The business group, however, applauded the government’s efforts in improving cross-strait relations by adapting an open policy since taking office, but expressed a need to lower inheritance tax so as to lure overseas funds back to Taiwan.
CNFI also urged the government to consider renovating the state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC, 台灣中油) refinery plant in Kaohsiung, for fear that a planned plant relocation by 2015 will result in more than half of the nation’s petrochemical plants being forced to close down and a large number of workers losing their jobs.
Chen said that many of CPC Corp’s downstream petrochemical companies are listed on the local bourse, so the government cannot only look at one side of the issue and not consider the consequences.
“If [the relocation] is done without careful planning, it will become an issue concerning many more plant closures,” Chen said.
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