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.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS