Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) yesterday apologized “on behalf of the KMT” for its “misguided” policy on a fuel price increase just ahead of major declines in international crude oil prices.
The government allowed refiners to raise the prices of gasoline and diesel products by an average of 10.7 percent on April 2, the steepest increase in four years, after the policy was approved by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Since the policy took effect on April 2, the state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油), which makes weekly adjustments to domestic gasoline and diesel prices based on the Dubai and Brent crude oil price indices, has lowered its prices for nine consecutive weeks.
Hsu blamed CPC, accusing the company of being “unprofessional,” and saying that the way it “misjudged the situation” and “kept President Ma in the dark” had “left the government with egg on its face.”
“Therefore, I have to apologize to the people on behalf of the KMT,” he said in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus allegations that the gasoline policy was the main culprit in a wave of price increases affecting consumer goods and services.
The government said the price hike policy was a way to rationalize the fuel price mechanism. Since December 2010, the government said, CPC has been subsidizing the nation’s oil products to stabilize consumer costs by covering half of any necessary price increases.
According to the government, with that subsidy in place, domestic gasoline and diesel prices rose 8 percent and 11 percent respectively from December 2010 to March this year, while international crude prices surged 43 percent during the same period.
The government said that because of the subsidy, CPC suffered an after-tax loss of NT$36.1 billion (US$1.2 billion) last year and an after-tax loss of NT$1.25 billion in the first two months of this year.
Accusing the government of failing to stabilize commodity and retail prices, while demanding that fuel prices be lowered to their pre-April levels and electricity prices be frozen, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference yesterday that Vice Premier Jiang Yi-hua’s (江宜樺) admission that market prices were a lot higher than government data showed was proof that the Ma administration’s economic policies had failed.
According to statistics compiled by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the consumer price index (CPI) last month increased by 1.74 percent compared with the same period last year, Pan said. However, a household of four would have to spend NT$5,000 more per month because of increases in retail prices caused by the government’s decision to raise fuel prices and, Pan said, citing the DPP’s estimate. The data showed that an Executive Yuan panel charged with monitoring and stabilizing retail prices, which was headed by Jiang, had failed its mission, he said.
With international pricing down 20 percent, fuel prices in Taiwan were scaled down for nine consecutive weeks under the floating fuel price mechanism, further evidence that the price increase policy was wrong, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said.
“Nevertheless, retail prices stayed at the same level,” she said, adding that there could be another price hike when the cost of electricity increases on Sunday.
Chen said the scheduled electricity price increase was unnecessary because global coal prices also went down by 23 percent. Immediately halting fuel and electricity price increases would greatly ease the burden on the public, DPP Legislator Tsai Chih-chang (蔡其昌) said.
“For those who earn less than NT$35,000 per month — and we’re talking about 3.5 million people, which accounts for 43 percent of wage earners in the nation — increased expenditures on fuel, electricity and retail represents a de facto pay cut of 17 percent,” Tsai said, citing the DPP’s estimate.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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