The legislature’s Economics Committee yesterday failed to reach consensus on the profit margin range for a new electricity pricing formula and agreed to send the proposal to cross-caucus negotiations.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will convene a cross-caucus meeting to discuss a “reasonable” profit margin range for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and how often the government has to make adjustments to power rates to cope with market changes, the committee said.
“From the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ perspective, a reasonable profit margin should be between 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent, but lawmakers have different opinions about the range of the figure,” Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
A “reasonable” profit margin should help cover Taipower’s accumulated debt and allow the state-run utility to buy new equipment, Deng said, adding that it does not include employee profit-sharing.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said the profit margin should be between 3 percent and 6 percent.
Taipower chairman Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) said he was agreeable to setting a cap of 6 percent because any figure higher would push up power rates.
Deng said the ministry usually adjusts power rates every six months to make it easier for Taipower to calculate and bill clients.
Huang agreed, saying: “Since the utility still needs to adjust power rates during summer, it will be difficult for the company if the rates are adjusted every three months.”
The lawmakers passed a resolution stating that once the formula is approved, an electricity price review commission should be formed with no more than a third of the members appointed by the government.
The lawmakers added that academics who had worked on research projects with the state-run firm over the past three years cannot join the commission.
“The two aforementioned resolutions are to avoid conflicts of interest between [commission] members and Taipower,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said.
The committee also asked Taipower to report to the legislature every six months to ensure that the company is striving to improve its operating efficiency.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS