Amid accusations that the nation’s two oil refiners overcharged consumers by about NT$1.37 billion (US$42.6 million) for fuel products it sold domestically last year, state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday announced it would readjust weekly fuel prices set just a day before.
CPC spokesman Lin Maw-wen (林茂文) said it was the first time in the firm’s history that it had adjusted its prices on two consecutive days.
After the new CPC adjustment, fuel prices will be reduced by NT$0.1 per liter, effective today.
Hours after CPC’s announcement, rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would reduce prices by NT$0.2 per liter, also beginning today.
The move came just a day after they announced on Sunday they would raise oil prices for this week by NT$0.3 per liter.
It followed a report in a Chinese-language newspaper that said the two firms had overcharged motorists by NT$240 per person in the name of the government’s air pollution fee. The companies usually announce their weekly fuel price adjustments once a week, on Sundays.
The refiners’ move also came on the same day the Chinese-language China Times reported that heads of government agencies were now required to finish reading newspapers before 8am and clarify any “negative news” about the government within two hours.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily said yesterday that the two refiners collected a total of NT$2.72 billion in air pollution fees last year by charging motorists at the pump, as required by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
Based on rates set by the EPA, the two refiners charged motorists NT$0.19 per liter of gasoline and NT$0.2 for diesel, but the rates could go lower based on sulfur content, as the EPA encourages oil refiners to produce low-sulfur oil products to help improve air quality.
The two companies improved their refining process to reduce sulfur content, the report said, and submitted NT$1.35 billion — out of the NT$2.72 billion they had collected — to the EPA as they applied cheaper rates.
“It’s a rip-off,” the Apple Daily said, citing a response from the Consumers’ Foundation. “The two companies should return the money they have been overcharging.”
The Apple Daily said CPC overcharged motorists NT$1.09 billion last year and Formosa NT$285 million.
In a statement, CPC said it had been enhancing oil product quality over the years, enabling it to reduce the fees it submitted to the EPA.
The company said the rates it applied last year were NT$0.0923 on gasoline per liter and NT$0.1291 for diesel — significantly lower than the rates it charged motorists.
“The company will review the air pollution fees every January,” CPC said. “The company will take into account the exact amount of air pollution fees submitted to the EPA in the previous year in its floating price mechanism for fuel in February.”
Formosa, however, said it was obliged to cut prices because of competition, not because of the accusations, which it denied.
Under the new prices, CPC’s 98-unleaded gasoline will be NT$31.2 per liter, 95-unleaded gasoline NT$29.7 and 92-unleaded NT$29.0, while Formosa will charge NT$31.2 per liter for 98-unleaded gasoline, NT$29.6 for 95-unleaded gasoline and NT$28.9 for 92-unleaded gasoline. Premium diesel will be NT$26.5 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26.4 at Formosa outlets.
In response, the EPA said there was no miscalculation of CPC’s payments. Officials said the dispute was the result of a “misunderstanding” between the gasoline companies and their customers.
“I can confirm that we have received all payments from CPC. We have rechecked the figure,” Air Quality Protection and Noise Control head Hsieh Yein-rui (謝燕儒) said.
“[CPC hasn’t] withheld money from us,” Hsieh said.
Instead, he said the problem lay in flawed price calculation methods that failed to take into account discrepancies in the amount collected by the EPA.
The figures collected by the agency are different for three types of oil quality. Oil containing under 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur makes up the first level, and is subject to a tax of NT$0.03 per liter. Oil sold containing 11ppm to 30ppm and 31ppm to 50ppm are charged NT$0.075 and NT$0.19 respectively.
The oil company failed to revise updated figures despite repeated increases in oil quality, Hsieh said, adding that many customers were unknowingly charged the higher fees despite the fact the fuel contained less sulfur.
Speaking about the “two-hour” policy later in the day, Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said that providing clarification on media reports was “standard operating procedure.”
“When print media misunderstand policies and government agencies fail to respond to the reports in two hours, electronic media will follow the newspaper reports and broadcast the stories the whole morning. People will thus believe the reports are true even when they are not,” Su said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN AND VINCENT Y. CHAO
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