Opposition lawmakers are to consider freezing the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ budget and requiring legislative approval for electricity price changes, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) said on Wednesday, after the ministry the day before said it would maintain electricity price hikes.
The legislature on Tuesday passed a non-binding motion to freeze electricity rates in a partisan 59-50 vote, with the Taiwan People’s Party joining the KMT in favor.
The ministry said it would keep the rates that went into effect last month, replying that Article 49 of the Electricity Act (電業法) mandates a twice-yearly committee meeting to decide on prices based on a stipulated formula.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Fu said the caucus would consider freezing the ministry’s budget apart from salaries and essential items during the next review.
In addition, the legislature on Friday is to review an amendment to Article 49 that would require legislative approval for any electricity price changes, he added.
Speaking at a separate news conference, Democratic Progressive Party caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that Tuesday’s vote provided another point of view, but a legislative motion does not supercede the law.
Electricity prices are under the purview of the executive branch, she said, adding that legislative approval would overstep constitutionally mandated separation of powers.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS