Taiwan’s basic electricity rate will remain the same at least until March 2022, while the prices of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products for households or industrial use will also not be raised in November, the Cabinet said in a statement Wednesday.
Concerns about inflation amid increasing international crude oil prices and bottlenecks in the global supply chain have caused various commodity prices in Taiwan to soar recently, the Cabinet said.
As part of the government’s price stabilization mechanism, the first and foremost response will be to maintain the stability in electricity, water, fuel and gas prices in Taiwan, it added.
It assured the public that the country’s basic electricity rate, which is currently priced at NT$2.6253 (US$0.093) per kilowatt-hour, will remain unchanged at least until March next year.
As for fuel, which has risen in the latter half of 2021, the government also has a mechanism to moderate domestic prices to reduce the financial burden on consumers.
If the price of 95 unleaded gasoline rises to between NT$30 and NT$32.4 per liter, state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp. will shoulder 25 percent of the weekly price increase and consumers will pay the remaining 75 percent, the Cabinet said.
If the price of 95 unleaded grows to between NT$32.5 and NT$34.9 per liter, CPC will absorb 50 percent of the weekly increase and the public will bear the remaining 50 percent.
And if the gasoline’s price rises to NT$35 or higher per liter, the CPC and the government will jointly absorb 75 percent of the increase, with the public paying the remaining 25 percent.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet added that the Ministry of Economic Affairs is also keeping a close watch over the prices of products for daily use and other necessities, including soybeans, cooking oil, toilet paper and baby powder.
The Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of Justice will continue to actively monitor and carry out investigations into price gouging by vendors, the Cabinet said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel