The government is considering implementing a surcharge on businesses that consume large amounts of water to encourage conservation, as the nation is now in the grip of a dire shortage of water, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said on Thursday.
The plan being considered is to impose a surcharge on 1,817 heavy industrial users that consume more than 10,000m3 of water per month, Su said.
The surcharge could be initiated by the government under the terms of the Water Act (水利法), he said, as Article 84-1 states that the government “may impose a water conservation charge on users if water usage exceeds a certain volume,” to encourage the sustainable use of water resources.
The fees collected by the government would be put into a Water Resources Operation Fund and be used for water resources management, recycling and conservation, the act states.
The act was amended in 2016 to allow for the implementation of a surcharge and with the nation experiencing a severe water shortage, mainly due to low rainfall in the second of half of last year, it should be implemented, Water Resources Agency Director-General Lai Chien-hsin (賴建信) said.
Should the surcharge be implemented, it would vary depending on the time of year and the type of industry, Lai said.
Companies would be given a grace period to prepare for the extra cost and those that succeed in meeting certain conservation goals could be charged a reduced surcharge, he said.
The agency would draft a proposal as soon as possible, he added.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) on Wednesday said that if a water surcharge was introduced, it would not take effect before next year.
Meanwhile, the agency plans to build new infrastructure such as water recycling and desalination plants, as well as digging new wells, to increase the supply of water to the municipalities that have been most severely affected, Lai said.
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