At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang announced an additional three-month extension on tax cuts for key raw materials, lasting to the end of December 2022. These tax cuts will alleviate the continuing pressure from high crude oil and commodity prices, ease the burden of operating costs for domestic businesses, and curb the impact of fluctuating commodity prices on people's economic well-being.
Taiwan's total tax revenue this year hit a historic high for the January to August period, the premier said, rising by NT$324.8 billion (US$10.4 billion) compared with the same period last year. Same-period record highs were also reached for profits of publicly listed companies in the first six months of 2022, as well as for total revenues in the wholesale, retail and food service sectors in July. These achievements demonstrate that Taiwan has maintained its national strength and excellent economic health despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has furthermore approved an increase to the national minimum wage beginning next year, to share the fruits of economic growth with the people.
Premier Su emphasized that in addition to working to raise salaries, the government hopes to lighten the public's financial burdens. On September 6, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announced that the consumer price index for August rose 2.66% from a year ago, reaching its lowest year-over-year growth in six months, and that domestic inflation is expected to slow down in the last half of the year. Since December of last year, the government has also implemented four rounds of tax-reduction measures on key raw materials and has provided NT$28 billion (US$899.5 million) in subsidies to the relevant raw material industries in order to stabilize commodity prices.