The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March approved a proposal to raise prices depending on the type of user and range of power consumption.
The plan called for a 3 to 5 percent increase for most households, and a hike of up to 25 percent for consumers of 500 gigawatt-hours or more per month.
The latter group mainly comprises chipmakers, data centers and telecom operators.
The price hikes took effect in April.
The Energy Administration said in a news release that adjusting electricity rates is governed by Article 49 of the Electricity Act (電業法).
This law and associated regulations state that an electricity price committee should be convened twice a year to determine prices based on a stipulated formula, the agency said, adding that the legislature approved the measures nine years ago.
The agency urged the public to support the price adjustments by state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) in light of soaring global energy costs after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, Taipower spent NT$600 billion (US$18.44 billion) on importing hydrocarbons, double what it spent before the start of the conflict, it said.
Industrial electricity prices from 2020 to last year increased 160 percent in France and 87 percent in South Korea, two countries mainly dependent on nuclear power, the agency said.
Electricity prices for households and small businesses — the best indicators of the impact of price changes on the public — increased 7.1 percent and 12.2 percent during the same period, it said.
Low electricity prices meant Taipower was operating at a loss, and had to be subsidized by taxes, it said.
In effect, the average Taiwanese taxpayer is subsidizing heavy power consumers, it added.
Taipower is forecast to record losses of NT$382.6 billion if electricity rates are not increased this year, it said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said the Cabinet “expresses its disapproval of the legislature’s passage of the resolution and emphasizes that ensuring stable electricity supply should not be a partisan issue.”
The price adjustments were made in accordance with the Electricity Act, which requires the government to implement the energy price committee’s decision on rate adjustments, he said.
“As branches of the government, the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan should, based on the Constitution, stay within their stipulated prerogatives and responsibilities,” Lin said.
World energy prices have soared due to the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, creating immense fiscal pressure on Taipower, Lin said.
Rising power rates are unavoidable if Taipower is to be a commercially viable enterprise, he said.
The KMT caucus said in a statement that the resolution was “the first step and a gunshot” against the government’s energy policy from Taiwanese.
The government has over the past few years “provided NT$450 billion in subsidies to Taipower, but the company remains on the brink while green energy companies are enjoying a glut,” it said.
The KMT will make further demands of the current and future administration to provide supplementary measures for the nation’s energy structure, extend the life of certain power plants and provide a strategy for Taipower’s operations, it said.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS