Government officials said yesterday at a national conference that water prices are too low and should be raised to meet water companies' costs in maintaining water-supply facilities.
"It is necessary to raise water prices to NT$20 per cubic meter," Vice Premier Lin Hsin-i (
"The hike in water fees can help prevent water waste by consumers," Lin said.
Currently, water fees are NT$7 to NT$9 per cubic meter. The rates have been frozen at the current level for nine years. The cost of processing water for household use, however, is NT$22 per cubic meter.
But Lin yesterday declined to specify when the government will raise water prices. He simply said the government has no plans for such a move in the near future. He didn't elaborate.
Although it is unknown when water prices will be changed, it is clear that the low price of water is unsustainable and has resulted in financial difficulties for the two major water suppliers in the nation.
According to government figures, Taiwan Water Supply Corp (自來水公司) and the Taipei Water Department (台北自來水事業處) saw their sales drop 1.73 percent and 3.05 percent last year, respectively, from the previous year's sales.
Because of the two companies' lack of funds, they cannot afford to repair old or worn water pipes that cause losses of 800 million tonnes of water each year. This is equivalent to two Feitsui Reservoirs annually, according to a recent Ministry of Economic Affairs report.
To reduce the water-leakage rate, Taiwan Water Supply Corp in March reported to the government that it planned to spend NT$3.5 billion to refurbish 670km of water pipe this year. In the past, the company allocated NT$200 million each year on pipe reconstruction, said Joseph Lyu (
The financial losses of the water companies, along with worsening water shortages in recent years, have forced the government to reconsider raising water fees.
"We'll propose a concrete measure on water-fee adjustment next year," said deputy director of Water Resources Agency Chen Shen-hsien (
Aside from the general price-hike plan, in March the agency proposed raising water fees for heavy users during dry periods, usually from November to April, from NT$0.5 to NT$1.5 per cubic meter.
If the proposal is passed, the companies will increase income by 30 percent to 40 percent during the dry season, Chen said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS