Taiwan to finalize energy and environment tax

Taiwan’s government may finalize in October the details on proposed energy and environment taxes, Deputy Director General of the Taxation Agency under the Ministry of Finance Sheu Chun-An said. The final version still needs to be approved by the Cabinet’s Tax Reform panel, Sheu said. The comments came after the Economic Daily News reported, without citing sources, that the government plans to halve to NT$400 billion (US$12.38 billion) its revenue target for the first 10 years of the tax. “The only thing that’s been confirmed is that we will transform the commodities tax on petroleum products into an energy tax and will also create an environment tax, but it hasn’t been decided on which industries the environment tax will be levied,” he said. (October 5, 2009)