Legislators yesterday expressed opposition to Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) planned investment in the Patuca hydroelectric power plant in Honduras, saying that investment will further expand the state-run utility company’s losses.
While Taipower was appointed by the government to take part in the investment project in a bid to strengthen diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Honduras, lawmakers demanded the company make a confidential report to a legislative committee regarding the investment.
Taipower’s finances have been weakened by a government freeze on electricity rates.
Taipower estimated that the plant’s total construction costs are estimated at US$345.89 million, but legislators said the company would have to borrow funds in order to invest in the project due to its lack of cash, with the result that taxpayers will have to pay the company’s heavy interest payments.
Taipower passed the NT$345.88 million (US$11.57 million) investment plan in an internal meeting on March 5 and the plan will begin this year, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) initially footing the bill, legislators said.
As Taipower has not appropriated funds for the investment project and legislators were unable to screen the budgets, they had asked for a closed-door report by Taipower.
Taipower chairman Edward Chen (陳貴明) said recently that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for any losses in the company’s investment plan.
The investment plan forms part of a package of foreign aid that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) promised several Central American countries during a trip he made there last August.
Taipower expects its pretax loss this year to widen to NT$44.61 billion (US$1.47 billion) from NT$31.24 billion last year, on higher costs and a possible continued freeze on electricity prices, the Dow Jones Newswire quoted spokeswoman Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元) as saying yesterday.
The state-run electricity supplier expects revenues this year to rise to NT$443.84 billion from NT$408.74 billion last year, Tu told Dow Jones.
In order to break even this year, the company needs to hike rates by an average of 50 percent.
Edward Chen said yesterday that the company would raise its prices on July 1 at the earliest, which will be one month after the state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) adjusts its fuel prices.
The nation’s electricity prices were on average NT$2.15 per kilowatt-hour last year.
Prices would go up to NT$2.8 per kilowatt-hour after July 1.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS