Amid controversy that EasyCard Corp might have improperly benefited its Kaohsiung counterpart, iPass Corp, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that a considerable difference in the cost of installing card readers at Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations to integrate the two cards stemmed from a difference in the number of gates the two municipalities open to each other.
EasyCard chairman Kenneth Lin (林向愷) during a question-and-answer session with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsiao-wei (王孝維) on Tuesday said that iPass had asked EasyCard to share a disproportionate cost of NT$69.46 million (US$2.11 million) out of a total of about NT$150 million for the installation of value-adding machines and card readers in Kaohsiung’s MRT stations by four firms manufacturing value storage cards.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) said EasyCard, in which the Taipei City Government has a 40 percent stake, has been presented with an insulting deal that encroaches on the city government’s rights.
Under an agreement drafted by iPass, the remaining expenditure would be split between icash Corp, a subsidiary of UniPresident Enterprises Corp, and Yuan Hsin Digital Payment Co, owned by the Far Eastern Group.
The two firms would pay about NT$40 million and NT$30 million respectively, while iPass itself has not tabled any plans to share the cost.
The three firms have reportedly each paid iPass a NT$3 million deposit for the infrastructure.
Wang said total expenditure by the three firms is about NT$138.48 million, meaning iPass would be able to earn more than NT$10 million from the deal.
He criticized EasyCard for having agreed to “unequal treatment,” which he said has played out in iPass not having spent a cent for its cards to be used at Taipei’s MRT stations, while EasyCard, whose circulation is about 10 times that of iPass, has to shoulder the majority of the cost of the card integration project.
Ko said he did not think the agreement was “insulting,” and that he would not ask iPass to refund the deposit.
He said the difference in payments made by EasyCard and iPass, for its cards to be used in Taipei, arose from a difference in the number of card readers to be installed, as iPass users are to be able to use only one card reader at each MRT station in Taipei, while EasyCard users would have access to all gates at Kaohsiung’s 37 MRT stations.
Lin said he would renegotiate the fee to be shouldered by EasyCard, adding that he had not yet signed an agreement.
Meanwhile, iPass public relations department director Shih Yao-cheng (石耀誠) said the amount proposed to be shared by the three firms was erroneous, adding that “iPass would by no means profit from the project.”
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