The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday called for clear pricing standards governing the installation of natural gas pipelines, which the foundation said can currently vary anything from NT$30,000 to NT$1 million (US$938 to US$32,150).
The foundation recently surveyed 13 gas companies and found that pricing gas pipeline installation was highly inconsistent, with companies charging extra for 13 different items; application fees, pipeline subsidy fees, gas fee deposits, meter installation fees, blueprint assessment fees and more.
ESTIMATES
The foundation phoned a selection of companies for a rough estimate of prices. Although most firms said the average installation project would cost between NT$20,000 and NT$40,000, some indicated that if the project did not go according to plan, it could cost up to NT$100,000 or even in the millions. Other companies replied that the entire project could be done for a few thousand dollars.
The lack of a standard pricing structure has led to widely divergent profit margins for gas companies and widespread suspicion that authorities are tolerant of such muddled pricing schemes.
“The wide range of pricing causes consumers to doubt that the gas companies are charging reasonably,” said Hwang Yu-sheng (黃鈺生), secretary-general of the Consumers’ Foundation.
APPLICATION FEE
Some gas companies require an application fee of less than NT$100 before they send a technician to conduct an on-site price assessment. However, others say this fee is not necessary, which shows that the authorities are turning a blind eye to the chaotic pricing systems of gas companies, Hwang said.
The foundation called on the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy to resolve this matter and set standard fees for each meter of gas pipeline installed. It also urged the government to support legislation governing gas and other public utilities in order to end the problem of dramatic price variations.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS