Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) yesterday said that edible oil manufacturer Chang Guann Co (強冠企業) could be just the tip of the iceberg in the ongoing scandal over recycled waste oil, naming three major oil refining companies that could have been involved in such irregularities.
Chao made the allegations during a question-and-answer session with Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Wu Ming-ji (吳明機) at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
“An anonymous food manufacturer approached me about two weeks ago claiming that besides Chang Guann, there are three large-scale oil refineries in the country that have been refining recycled waste oil and illegally selling it to food and animal feed manufacturers,” Chao said.
The alleged refineries are Chant Oil Co (承德油脂) in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), Chia Ching Corp (甲清企業) in Greater Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰) and Yu Fa Olein Co (裕發油脂) in Greater Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山), Chao said.
Chao said based on his preliminary investigation, a majority of the food companies that have purchased the alleged refined used oil from the trio are licensed to engage in both food manufacturing and fodder production.
“The law which allows business establishments to use the same manufacturing license for very different operations has created a safety net for unscrupulous food companies, as they can argue that they purchased recycled oil only for the production of animal feeds,” Chao said.
The legislator said more alarming was that the whistleblower told him the amount of refined waste oil allegedly sold by the three firms to food companies have increased noticeably since the Ministry of Economic Affairs rescinded on May 5 the requirement that 2 percent of biodiesel be included in regular diesel.
Chao declined to release the list of alleged buyers of oils from the three firms, saying he was verifying the accuracy of the information.
“All that I can say at the moment is that some of them are household names,” Chao said, urging relevant government agencies to step in and use their authority to demand that the three firms hand over the lists of their upstream suppliers and downstream buyers.
“If the government maintains its lackadaisical attitude, I will go ahead and make public everything I know,” he added.
Wu said that to his knowledge, Chant Oil, a licensed biodiesel manufacturer, produced a total of 8,037 tonnes of biodiesel from January to July, all of which was sold to CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油) and European companies.
“As for the other two firms, they are not on the list of the nation’s licensed recycling companies and we will look into the matter as soon as possible,” Wu said.
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