The government is unlikely to distribute a cash rebate to taxpayers this year due to a reduction in last year’s tax surplus, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told the legislature yesterday.
Chen was replying to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan whether the government planned to distribute a cash rebate as it had in 2022, after collecting a tax surplus of NT$386 billion (US$12.15 billion) last year.
Wang further proposed a motion that would require the government to pay a cash rebate whenever the annual tax surplus exceeds NT$300 billion.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Any surplus in tax revenue should be used to pay down the national debt first. Then we have to review the items that need to be bolstered through government funding, such as replenishing the National Health Insurance and labor insurance funds and subsidizing the operation of state-run Taiwan Power Co,” Chen said.
Tax officials must be more precise when estimating tax revenue for the annual budget plan, he added.
“The tax surplus topped NT$500 billion in 2022, when Taiwan’s economy outperformed other countries amid a realignment of the global supply chain. As such, we were able to set aside part of that surplus for a cash rebate for taxpayers. We might not be able to do that this year, as the surplus for last year was not as much as in 2022,” he said.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) told Wang that the nation still has about NT$276 billion in tax surplus from last year, of which NT$126 billion would be used to pay down debts.
How the remaining NT$150 billion should be used would be reviewed and decided by the National Audit Office, Chu said.
“So far, we do not have plans to repay the tax surplus to the public this year,” he added.
Chen told reporters on the sidelines of the session that the government would decide the size of the subsidy Taipower would receive from the tax surplus after careful calculations.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs last month confirmed that the state-run power company would need to raise electricity rates or receive a government subsidy to stay afloat, as its accumulated losses had reached close to NT$400 billion last year.
Some have speculated that a subsidy for the utility could reach NT$100 billion.
Many countries have raised electricity rates since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused global fuel prices to surge dramatically, Chen said.
“We thank Taipower for limiting the increase of electricity rates in the past, which in turn have allowed the government to better control inflation,” he said.
“While we are considering a new pricing scheme for electricity rates, we would take into account how the adjustment would affect different users. Corporations that are high power users would be asked to pay more for electricity, while users in residential areas would be charged less,” he said.
The new scheme would also distinguish between industries that have recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and those that have not, and subsidies would be offered to financially disadvantaged people, he said.
In other news, Chen said that the government plans to build a cargo airport in southern Taiwan, as semiconductor manufacturers construct new plants in the region.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said that 96 percent of air cargo in Taiwan is shipped out from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
“What we saw from the runway maintenance project at the Taoyuan airport earlier this month was that chips made in southern Taiwan might not be shipped to other countries if there is a backlog in flights,” Chung said.
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