Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday that the ministry would spend two months reviewing the government contract for the freeway electronic toll collection (ETC) system before deciding whether to charge motorists for on-board units (OBU).
“This is one of the toughest issues I’ve had to deal with since I took office,” Mao said. “It involves a lot of technical issues.”
Mao said despite controversies over the terms of the contract, the ministry would “just have to accept them as they are,” while striving to adjust them to “help the ministry meet the 2012 goal of charging the motorists by the distance they travel while protecting the interests of motorists at the same time.”
“We will discuss the possibility of making the OBU free of charge in our review and it is one of the directions we are working on,” Mao said.
The ETC system is now operated by Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (遠通電收) under the build-operate-transfer business model. Each of the OBUs costs NT$1,199.
About 750,000 motorists have installed OBUs in their vehicles. The nation has 6 million registered motorists.
Meanwhile, ministry policy requires that 65 percent of the nation’s motorists must use the ETC system before the nation can start charging motorists by distance, rather than by the number of toll gates they pass.
The company has tried to encourage the purchase of OBUs through various package deals. However, the price of OBUs remained the focus of a question-and-answer session at yesterday’s legislative Transportation Committee, where lawmakers were briefed by the ministry about the ETC system.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) and several other lawmakers proposed a resolution demanding the ministry charge motorists for installing OBUs.
“The contract itself is an embarrassment to the government and the people,” Yeh said. “People are the ultimate victims in this case.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) supported the ministry’s decision to fix what she said was an unjust bill.
“You have to say no to this corporate fat cat,” she said.
Yeh also said that the ministry cannot possibly start charging by travel distance by 2012 with a contract like this.
The government cannot ask every motorist to use the ETC system to pay freeway toll fees either, she said.
Yeh quoted Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau director Lee Tai-ming (李泰明) as saying those without OBUs could choose to pay before they hit the road or to pay after they receive a photo and a bill, so those measures would generate a new set of issues.
“Motorists figure they shouldn’t have to pay for OBUs, nor pay in advance. They can just sit at home and wait to get the photo and the bill,” she said.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
RSS