Securities tax revenue sets September record

• By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter

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Tax revenue from securities transactions rose 71.2 percent year-on-year to NT$53.4 billion (US$1.66 billion) last month, a new September high, even as it marked the third consecutive monthly decline as market turnover continued to fall.

This year’s overall trading volume remains higher than last year, and securities transaction tax revenue last month still posted positive year-on-year growth for the 14th consecutive month, Ministry of Finance data released yesterday showed.

The stock market declined last month before rebounding later in the month and consolidating at high levels, the ministry said.

Ministry of Finance signage outside its building in Taipei is pictured on May 27 last year.

Photo: CNA

The TAIEX closed at 47,940.13 points at the end of the month, gaining 1,811 points or 3.93 percent, it said.

The average daily turnover of the local stock market was NT$1.032 trillion, down 5.8 percent month-on-month and marking the third consecutive month of decline. However, compared with the same month last year, it increased 71.8 percent, the ministry said.

The TAIEX yesterday closed down 960.65 points, or 1.95 percent, at 48,341.31, as investors took cues from overnight weakness on Wall Street amid escalating geopolitical unease and a sell-off of chip stocks across Asia.

In the first nine months of this year, cumulative tax revenue from securities transactions totaled NT$506 billion, rising 1.6-fold year-on-year and marking the highest level for the same period, the ministry said, adding that average daily stock turnover surged 160 percent year-on-year to NT$1.146 trillion over the period.

Overall, the nation last month collected NT$496.5 billion in tax revenue, up NT$81.3 billion, or 19.6 percent, from a year earlier and the highest September figure, the ministry said.

The growth was due to increases of NT$29.7 billion in business tax revenue, NT$25.4 billion in corporate income tax revenue and NT$22.2 billion in securities transaction tax revenue, it said.

Commodity tax revenue posted the largest decline of NT$1.1 billion in the month, it added.

In the first nine months of this year, cumulative tax revenue grew NT$700.4 billion, or 24.4 percent, to NT$3.571 trillion, as increases in corporate income, personal income, securities transactions and business taxes offset the decreases in revenue from commodity and land value increment taxes, the ministry said.

The January-to-September figure was 15 percent above the government’s budget for the first nine months and was 78.8 percent of its full-year target, it said.

It remains to be seen whether the tax revenue collected this year could exceed the government’s budgeted figure, as it must consider factors such as the stock trading volume in the coming months and the recovery of the local housing market, the ministry said.