Amid controversy that EasyCard Corp might have improperly benefited its Kaohsiung counterpart, iPass Corp, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that a considerable difference in the cost of installing card readers at Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations to integrate the two cards stemmed from a difference in the number of gates the two municipalities open to each other.
EasyCard chairman Kenneth Lin (林向愷) during a question-and-answer session with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsiao-wei (王孝維) on Tuesday said that iPass had asked EasyCard to share a disproportionate cost of NT$69.46 million (US$2.11 million) out of a total of about NT$150 million for the installation of value-adding machines and card readers in Kaohsiung’s MRT stations by four firms manufacturing value storage cards.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) said EasyCard, in which the Taipei City Government has a 40 percent stake, has been presented with an insulting deal that encroaches on the city government’s rights.
Under an agreement drafted by iPass, the remaining expenditure would be split between icash Corp, a subsidiary of UniPresident Enterprises Corp, and Yuan Hsin Digital Payment Co, owned by the Far Eastern Group.
The two firms would pay about NT$40 million and NT$30 million respectively, while iPass itself has not tabled any plans to share the cost.
The three firms have reportedly each paid iPass a NT$3 million deposit for the infrastructure.
Wang said total expenditure by the three firms is about NT$138.48 million, meaning iPass would be able to earn more than NT$10 million from the deal.
He criticized EasyCard for having agreed to “unequal treatment,” which he said has played out in iPass not having spent a cent for its cards to be used at Taipei’s MRT stations, while EasyCard, whose circulation is about 10 times that of iPass, has to shoulder the majority of the cost of the card integration project.
Ko said he did not think the agreement was “insulting,” and that he would not ask iPass to refund the deposit.
He said the difference in payments made by EasyCard and iPass, for its cards to be used in Taipei, arose from a difference in the number of card readers to be installed, as iPass users are to be able to use only one card reader at each MRT station in Taipei, while EasyCard users would have access to all gates at Kaohsiung’s 37 MRT stations.
Lin said he would renegotiate the fee to be shouldered by EasyCard, adding that he had not yet signed an agreement.
Meanwhile, iPass public relations department director Shih Yao-cheng (石耀誠) said the amount proposed to be shared by the three firms was erroneous, adding that “iPass would by no means profit from the project.”
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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