Print

Mail

wiki links

Cabinet approves new liquefied petroleum gas plan

A taxi driver shows off his new Liquefied Petroleum Gas fuel system yesterday in Taipei City. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

The Cabinet yesterday passed a plan to encourage the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in vehicles, with the aim of increasing the number of vehicles powered by LPG to 150,000 over five years.

There are just 12,000 LPG vehicles on the road currently.

Under the five-year plan, effectively starting this year, a tax break of NT$25,000 (US$777) will be granted for a newly produced or imported LPG vehicle, and owners of both new and refitted LPG vehicles will be granted NT$25,000 in LPG-fuel coupons.

The NT$50,000 total is in line with the cost of refitting a regular oil powered vehicle to run on LPG, which usually costs between NT$48,000 and NT$58,000.

Meanwhile, the government will offer NT$2 for each liter of LPG fuel during the program, which will make each liter of LPG fuel NT$15 cheaper than regular gas.

The use of LPG in vehicles can help reduce air pollutants and greenhouse emissions as well as mitigate the impact of rising oil prices, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said at yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting.

"People who drive 5,000km per month would save NT$10,000 in fuel charges by using LPG instead of regular gas," Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) said at a press conference following the meeting.

Dang added, "The switch in fuel also reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 71 percent, hydrocarbon compounds by 89.3 percent and carbon dioxide by 17 percent."

Given that the nation has just 20 LPG refueling stations, the government also plans to increase the subsidy for opening a station from NT$7 million to NT$8.4 million, setting the goal of increasing the number to 150 by 2012.

The EPA said the use of LPG vehicle is not as popular in Taiwan as in other countries in the region. The cost of implementing the plan was estimated at NT$7.57 billion.
This story has been viewed 1637 times.