Electricity rates are to be cut by 9.56 percent on Friday as scheduled, Vice Premier Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said yesterday in response to appeals by an aide to president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to delay the move.
The stance of the Executive Yuan is to abide by the law, and it will follow the electricity rate formula passed by the legislature last year, Duh said.
“Unless the legislature reviews the issue or revises formula, the Executive Yuan will follow the decision reached by the Rate Screening Committee on March 15,” he said.
The possibility of delaying the cut was raised after Chang Ching-sen (張景森), executive director of Tsai’s policy office, met with Duh on Friday.
At the meeting, he asked the ministry to put the rate reduction on hold until Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government takes office on May 20, so as to not affect the energy and environmental policies of the new government.
In a post on his Facebook page on Sunday, Chang said that Taiwan relies on imports for its energy needs, and electricity rates should be high, but they are not because the nation uses coal and nuclear plants to generate its electricity.
He said that if the ministry does not postpone the rate and global oil prices start to rise in the second half of the year, electricity rates will certainly rise, which he said would be inflationary.
“Power rate cuts do not lead to drops in commodity prices, but if the electricity rate rises, the prices of goods will rise along with it,” Chang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Teh-fu (林德福) said he was surprised by the DPP’s position.
He said the DPP in January last year insisted that state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) come up with a formula to adjust electricity rates systematically and adjust electricity prices every year on April 1 and Oct. 1.
That was why Taipower announced the rate cut, which is to save the more than 13 million power customers in Taiwan a total of NT$56.2 billion (US$1.72 billion) per year, Lin said.
Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) earlier yesterday said that the rate cut would take effect on Friday if the legislature does not pass a new resolution on the issue.
The DPP seemed to give mixed signals on its position.
DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said the party respected the decision that is to be implemented by the executive branch based on the legislature’s resolution last year.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) did not seem to oppose preserving the scheduled rate cut either, saying that any adjustment of electricity rates should consider energy policy and conservation.
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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