There will be no hikes in water and electricity charges, Premier Frank Hsieh (
"I can't promise there will be no increase in water and electricity charges during my tenure, but I guarantee you there will be no hikes in utilities before the current legislative session ends, and that state-run oil refineries and power companies will not increase prices unless their private counterparts move first," he told the legislature.
The legislative session concludes on May 30.
Hsieh was responding to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (
Wang asked Hsieh to promise that he would not allow hikes in water and electricity bills during his term. She also requested that Hsieh pledge not to increase taxes.
Hsieh said state-run firms Taipower and Taiwan Water Corp repeatedly requested an increase to water and electricity charges since he took office last month, but that he had rejected their requests.
"My theory is there shouldn't be an increase in water and electricity fees when interest rates are lower than increases in the price of consumer goods," Hsieh said.
Last year's consumer price index rose 1.9 percent, while the interest rate was 1.5 percent.
Hsieh also pledged to put his property into a trust and deliver on a promise to ensure clean and transparent government.
"We are sincere about building a clean and transparent government and are determined to make good on our promise," he said. "In addition to putting my personal property under a trust, an agency dedicated to the establishment of a clean government must be set up and the government must implement the `sunshine laws' passed by the legislature."
In addition, Hsieh promised not to appoint to the Cabinet any official found to have been diverting resources for personal gain.
Speaking on the legislature's non-binding resolution requesting that the Cabinet urge President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to initiate a "defensive referendum" in reaction to China's "Anti-Secession" Law, Hsieh indicated that there were limits to what the Cabinet could do.
"Since it is the president that has the authority to launch a `defensive referendum,' we will let the president make the decision," he said. "I believe the president will evaluate both domestic and international factors and make the best choice with the nation's utmost interest in mind."
The Referendum Law (公民投票法) states that the president can call a referendum on issues of national security in the event of a foreign threat to national sovereignty after obtaining Cabinet approval.
Hsieh agreed with KMT Legislator Lee Jih-chu's (
Instead of passively waiting for China's change of mind, Lee proposed that the government adopt a proactive approach by asking a sympathetic US to help Taiwan join ASEAN and the World Health Organization, as well as signing a free-trade agreement with the US and other countries.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS