Banks, insurers and brokerages in Taipei and New Taipei City are to open as normal tomorrow, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Saturday.
All financial service providers have been instructed to ensure uninterrupted customer services while following the cities’ tightened disease prevention measures, the commission said.
The announcement came after the Central Epidemic Command Center raised the COVID-19 alert for the two cities to level 3 through Friday next week, calling on the public to avoid unnecessary travel, activities and gatherings, banning indoor gatherings of more than five people and outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people, and implementing sector-specific rules for businesses.
Photo: Allen Wu, Taipei Times
To reduce person-to-person contacts, the Ministry of Finance said that National Taxation Bureau offices in northern Taiwan would stop accepting in-person income tax filings.
The offices in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan and Yilan would not accept tax filings until Friday next week, but remain open for other purposes, it said, adding that disease prevention measures, such as checking visitors’ temperatures, would be in place.
The ministry on Wednesday last week announced that the deadline for filing individual and corporate income tax for last year has been extended by one month, to June 30.
It urged people to file their taxes online, which can also be done using a smartphone.
The Securities and Futures Bureau said that listed companies would still have to hold in-person annual shareholders’ meetings, but control the number of participants, guaranteeing that no more then five people attend a meeting in the same room.
The requirement for in-person shareholders’ meetings is stipulated in the Company Act (公司法) to safeguard the participation rights of minority shareholders, it said.
Despite a provision in the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) that shareholders’ meetings must be held before the end of June, the bureau said it would on a case-by-case basis decide whether companies that do not meet this deadline be exempted from penalties.
Commission data showed that 261 listed companies have scheduled shareholder meetings between tomorrow and Friday next week.
Of those companies, 28 had more than 50 shareholders attending their meetings in person last year, the commission said.
Additional reporting by CNA
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to