Taiwan Water Corp (Taiwater, 台灣自來水) yesterday said it has canceled a plan to propose a rate hike to the Ministry of Economic Affairs before the end of this month, adding that it would not propose a hike next year either.
“It is definite that we will not adjust water prices this year and next year. We will focus on improving our operational efficiency,” Taiwater spokesman Wu Ching-wen (武經文) said.
Wu’s announcement was an about face for the state-run utility.
Taiwater chairman Kuo Chun-ming (郭俊銘) said several times this year that the company was drafting a proposal to increase the rates for the dry season, which is between November and April next year.
Kuo told an Aug. 9 news conference that Taiwan’s water prices had not been changed for more than 23 years and that a rate hike would not only promote conservation during the dry season, but it would also provide the utility with the funds to replace old pipelines and fix leaks.
Wu said Taiwater has the money to support its plan to replace pipelines nationwide, but otherwise refused to comment on the price hike U-turn.
The company posted a pretax income of NT$1.04 billion (US$34.51 million) last year.
In the first eight months of this year, its pretax income totaled NT$960 million, according to the company’s Web site.
A high-ranking source in the ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Taipei Times that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had talked with Kuo, a former DPP lawmaker, and persuaded him not to raise water prices, given that the company has been profitable for so many years.
“It is hard for the government to convince the public of the need to raise water prices when the company is making money,” the source said by telephone.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles. By the time she turned 10, she and her friends were spending hours on ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Goddard Strahan developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers. One night, her skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on her face, and her cheeks turn
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
RSS