■ Yahoo-Kimo adds new fee
Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩), the nation's largest auctioneer, announced yesterday that starting Aug. 10, it will charge sellers a transaction handling fee -- 3 percent of the concluding price -- on items that are sold via its auction site.
According to a company statement, the maximum fee charged would be NT$300 (US$9.13) and buyers remain free of any fee.
This will be the second fee Yahoo-Kimo has imposed on its its sellers. It began charging a listing fee of NT$3 per item in April 2004.
"To provide more functions and better services to users, we have to inject more funds," Charlene Hung (洪小玲), vice president of Yahoo-Kimo's e-commerce business service division said in the statement.
Citing the example of eBay, which charges users a final value fee, Yahoo-Kimo said a transaction handling fee is common.
However, PC Home Online (網路家庭), which said last month that it would team up with eBay Taiwan by the end of the year, said it has no plan to charge users, it said in statement released by PC Home said yesterday.
■ Public construction budget set
The government's budget for public construction next year has been set at NT$205.6 billion (US$6.32 billion), the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.
Hsia Cheng-chung (夏正鐘), a CEPD department chief in charge of auditing, said the budget will be used to fund major public construction programs and the "10 New Construction Projects."
Among the budget for major construction programs, highways and rail tracks will top the bill at NT$48.9 billion, followed by agricultural development at NT$17 billion.
Mass rapid transit systems around the country will use the most at NT$24.999 billion for the 10 big projects, followed by NT$15 billion for the development of "top-notch" universities.
Hsia said that the appropriation of the budget has followed the instructions of the Cabinet and has not taken into consideration such factors as the 2008 presidential election, impractical political promises or dividing up resources for the sake of "nominal equality."
■ Cabinet gets gas hike proposal
A proposal to raise the price of natural gas by 15 percent was due to be sent to a Cabinet meeting for approval yesterday, Minister of Economic Affairs Morgan Hwang (黃營杉) said.
Hwang said the level of the price increase was decided July 20 by Ministry of Economic Affairs committee, adding that the price increase will take effect after the Cabinet approves it.
Pointing out that the international price of natural gas has risen quickly in recent months, Hwang said the cost of importing natural gas is currently 20 percent higher than the retail price in the domestic market.
Rven if the price hike is approved, it won't cover the difference between import and retail costs, he said.
■ NT dollar dips
The New Taiwan dollar extended a two-week decline on speculation overseas investors will sell the nation's shares on concern growth in exports will keep slowing.
The NT dollar declined 0.3 percent to NT$32.855 per US dollar on turnover of US$788 million as of the 4pm close of onshore trading in Taipei yesterday, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Sadaaki Kondou, assistant general manager of the treasury department in Taipei at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, a unit of Japan's second-largest lender by assets, said the NT dollar may remain under a weakening trend and may fall to NT$33 this week, Kondou said.
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