By Shelley Shan / Staff reporterLawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to review its management system of slopes along highways and freeways after a landslide on the southbound side of National Sun Yat-sen Freeway （Freeway No. 1） on Tuesday caused severe congestion during peak-hour traffic yesterday morning.
Electric vehicle (EV) drivers would eventually have to pay fuel charges, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
Wang made the remark at a meeting of the legislature’s transportation committee in response to questions about how the ministry would make up for an eventual shortfall in revenue as more drivers switch to electric vehicles.
The government collects about NT$53 billion (US$1.78 billion) in fuel charge revenue per year, which funds road maintenance projects, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said.
While the current system, which levies fuel charge by vehicle types and engine sizes, charge ensures a reliable
WINDING ROAD: While the number of vehicles increased from 8.19 million in 2020 to 8.33 million last year, fuel charge revenue fell as EV sales rose, a legislator saidBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) could soon reach a consensus on a draft “Taiwan railway corporation” act, as there are only small differences between the version proposed by the ministry and the one proposed by the Taiwan Railway Labor Union (TRLU), Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) told lawmakers yesterday.
The legislature’s Transportation Committee convened after more than 13,000 Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) employees took the day off on International Workers’ Day to protest the ministry’s decision to send the bill to the legislature without reaching an agreement with the union first.
In a news conference on
The legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday voted to strike down a motion that would have authorized the committee to establish an ad hoc team to review all documents related to the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) deliberations over licensing Mirror News.
The motion, proposed by New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華), would have required the commission to turn over to the committee all documents related to the case, including the application, formal correspondence between the NCC and Mirror News, supplementary materials, and an audio recording and transcript of a Jan. 19 meeting, in which the commission approved the news channel’s application.
Chen