The Cabinet will propose a plan by the end of the week to lower commodity prices that have been pushed up by this summer's soaring prices of crude oil, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday.
During the plenary session at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, Democratic Progressive Party legislators Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱) asked why domestic commodity prices remained high despite the drop in international crude oil prices to around US$62 a barrel.
“I said about a week ago that prices of domestic products that were closely related to the price of crude oil should also fall,” Liu said.
“Our task force in charge of monitoring commodity prices will announce [a price-cut plan] within the week.”
Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) said on Sunday the task force was scheduled to discuss the plan today, but it was not clear whether the Cabinet would make any announcement immediately after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Chen wanted the Executive Yuan to follow a resolution by the legislature's Economics Committee to propose measures to bring down the prices of gasoline, electricity and gas by the committee’s meeting today.
The premier did not make any promises, but said that some 4 million households were spending less on electricity bills now than they did last year because of the current administration’s policies.
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