Legislators serving on the Trans-portation Committee passed a resolution yesterday that asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to immediately suspend the second round of reviews for the highway electronic toll collection system.
The resolution also stated that since the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co was entangled in the lawsuits over alleged bribery and forgery, the government should take over the operation after the legal disputes were settled.
Moreover, the resolution would require the ministry to brief the committee members first before signing contracts with any company.
The resolution was made at the Transportation Committee meeting yesterday where minister Tsai Duei (
People First Party Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
Specifically, the requirements stated that the service charge per transaction will not be evaluated at this time.
The company is also exempt from committing to a specific deadline to establish a vehicle positioning system because such a system is incompatible with the infrared system Far Eastern uses now.
The ministry reopened the second round of the review process last year after the Supreme Administrative Court ruled the original second round had not been conducted properly.
The two participants in the second round -- Far Eastern and Yu Tung Technology -- were invited to renegotiate with the MOTC. Both were required to submit their operating plans in advance before negotiating with the MOTC would begin again.
While Far Eastern submitted its plan by the deadline, Yu Tung failed to do so.
Yu Tung general manager Chang Kung-pu (張公濮) indicated last year that the conditions set by the Executive Yuan to solve the freeway electronic toll system's problems -- namely that treasury losses be minimized and that motorist interests be protected -- were created to favor Far Eastern.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
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