Government agencies will take action to curb gasoline hoarding, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday.
During a Cabinet meeting Liu directed government agencies to step up inspections on fuel storage facilities in an attempt to demonstrate the administration’s determination to stop profiteering on gasoline, Cabinet spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said.
“Those caught hoarding will not be dealt with leniently,” Liu was quoted by Shih as saying.
Liu said that if necessary, “allied action” would be taken by central and local governments, law enforcement authorities and officials from consumer protection associations to crack down on hoarders.
The premier directed the Fair Trade Commission to complete inspections of fuel storage conditions around the country as soon as possible and come up with solutions to the problems.
These would include planning “anti-hoarding allied action,” Shih said.
A plan to curb hoarding and stabilize commodity prices was passed at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, Shih said.
For motorists or motorcyclists scrambling to buy gasoline or diesel in anticipation of an imminent fuel price hike, Shih said, some officials suggested at the meeting that the Ministry of Economic Affairs make it clear what kind of containers can or cannot be used to store gasoline or diesel.
This was on the grounds that it is extremely dangerous for ordinary people to make large purchases of such potentially volatile products.
The public is discouraged from purchasing gasoline or other fuel products and storing them in their own containers, Shih said.
In related news, Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) investigators in the south of the country reported yesterday that they had discovered a chemicals company in Tainan County that was suspected of hoarding more than 20,000 liters of gasoline at its factory.
If found guilty, the firm would be violating public safety as well as fair trade principles.
Police in Miaoli County raided two gravel-processing plants yesterday to discover that some 42,000 liters of diesel were being stored there.
Also yesterday, more than 30,000 liters of diesel for fishing boats was discovered in a makeshift factory in the coastal township of Taihsi (台西) in Yunlin County.
The owner of the products was handed over to the Yunlin County prosecutors’ office for further questioning.
The price increases came in the aftermath of the Cabinet giving a green light to CPC Corp, Taiwan, the major state-owned fuel processor and distributor, to raise domestic fuel prices on Tuesday, six days earlier than had been anticipated.
The “unexpected” price increase was aimed at preventing hoarding among consumers and avoiding endangering public safety, Shih said on Wednesday.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard