No plans to freeze oil price hikes: Yiin

Economic Minister Yiin Chii-ming said yesterday that the government has no intention of curtailing further price hikes or subsidizing oil purchases should the domestic sales price of 92-octane unleaded gasoline soar past the level of NT$30 per liter. Yiin made the remarks when asked by reporters to comment on press reports that to prevent domestic commodity prices from soaring along with the rises in international crude oil prices, the commodity price monitoring panel under the Cabinet won’t rule out stopping further price hikes or granting subsidies to oil consumers if the price of 92-octane unleaded gasoline rises above the level of NT$30 per liter. Meanwhile, Lin Mao-wen, a vice president of the state-run CPC Corp. Taiwan, also told reporters that the CPC will not review the existing floating oil pricing system in the short term, unless the WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil price surges to US$83 per barrel. Lin said the CPC will review its flexible oil pricing mechanism in case one of the following three situations occurs: domestic oil prices have risen by over 20 percent for four consecutive weeks; domestic sales price of 92-octane unleaded gasoline reaches NT$30 per liter; and the average Dubai and Brent crude oil futures prices soar to US$80 per barrel. (June 16, 2009)