Preliminary taxation data for December had underestimated the real revenue figure by NT$21.7 billion (US$736 million), the Ministry of Finance announced Thursday. The final total for the whole year showed an increase of 8.8 percent compared to the previous year.

Despite the apparent positive result for the government, the ruling KMT heard an academic condemn lax financial efficiency and advocate tax hikes to pay for rising social expenditure.

National Chengchi University Economics Professor Lin Tzu-chia was invited to speak at the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting Wednesday in the presence of party chairman President Ma Ying-jeou.

Central government debt had reached 37.1 percent of the average Gross National Product of the past three years, Lin said, telling the party it should stringently respect the legal maximum of 40 percent.

Raising taxes was unavoidable, so the government should try and find a way of hiking taxes with the least economic impact as possible, Lin said. He suggested 1 percent rises in the business tax and the financial business tax.

Ma emphasized the importance of making the taxation system fairer, but didn’t make any pronouncements on how he wanted to go about this idea.

Finance Minister Christina Liu, who took office last Monday amid suggestions for a new wealth tax or windfall tax, said she had no plans to hike the business tax.

Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien, a former Finance Minister, said he would like the job back for two years to raise taxes and increase social spending.