Operators of private nurseries and kindergartens yesterday called on the government to freeze electricity prices for their facilities, saying they are suffering from a price hike that took effect on July 1.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs raised electricity rates 15 percent for large industrial consumers. While residential users consuming less than 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month have not seen their bills rise, those who consume more than that amount have seen their rates increase 9 percent for each additional kWh consumed.
However, the government has frozen electricity rates for elementary, junior-high and high schools, as well as major users in six sectors closely related to people’s daily lives: food processing, farms, fisheries, department stores, movie theaters and gyms.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The operators of private nurseries and kindergartens yesterday at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan said they should be included on the list so that they could “maintain the quality of early childhood education.”
They were accompanied by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.
National Kindergarten and Childcare Federation chairwoman Liu Chiu-fang (劉秋芳) criticized the exclusion, saying that private nurseries and kindergartens adhered to government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most nurseries and kindergartens face monthly electricity bills of almost NT$100,000, she said, adding that the price hike placed a heavy burden on the operators.
Chinese Early Childhood Education Association chairman Su Chuan-chen (蘇傳臣) questioned the reason for the exclusion, saying it “lacked logic and reasonable grounds.”
Talent Developing Association of ROC chairman Chen He-shun (陳和順) said the number of students in private nurseries and kindergartens is far higher than those in junior-high and high schools, adding that they require more intensive care and a comfortable learning environment.
Childcare Association of ROC chairman Liu Shang-wei (劉上維) said the government vowed to provide every public school classroom with free air-conditioning, but imposed a 15 percent price hike on private nurseries and kindergartens.
KMT Legislator Wu I-ding (吳怡玎) said that the private institutions must pay teachers’ salaries and keep the lights and air-conditioning on, even if only one student is in the classroom.
Any plan to raise tuition fees needs to be approved by the Ministry of Education, she said, adding that the government is asking too much of the operators.
KMT caucus whip Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗) said the Ministry of Economic Affairs should freeze electricity prices for the establishments retroactively from July 1.
If it is unable to do so, it should subsidize electricity bills of the operators, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS