Large water users will be subject to an additional water tariff of NT$3 (US$0.098) per cubic meter starting Feb. 1 on top of their monthly water bills during the dry season, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said Friday.
Called a water consumption fee, the tariff will be imposed on water users who use more than 9,000 cubic meters a month from November to April, the ministry said in a statement.
The tariff can be reduced to NT$2 or NT$1 per cubic meter if a certain percentage of the water used by a customer comes from recycled water that did not originally come from underground, it said.
Large water users are encouraged to use sea water, develop new water resources, or install water conservation devices to be eligible for a discount of up to 60 percent on their water consumption fee, MOEA said.
The actual water consumption fee charged after accounting for potential discounts will be cut in half from when it is first imposed in February to June 30, 2025, and then charged in full after that, though the discounts will remain in effect, the ministry said.
The ministry originally expected to start levying the water consumption fee in July 2022, based on Article 84-1 of the Water Act amended by the Legislature in 2016, Water Resources Agency Deputy Director-General Wang Yi-feng (???) told CNA.
But given the electricity price hikes imposed on large-scale consumers since July 2022 and other inflationary pressures, the ministry decided to postpone the start date of the water consumption fee to February 2023, he said.
The new tariff will be imposed on an estimated 1,700 to 2,200 business users involved mainly in the manufacturing, construction and meat wholesaler sectors, and will raise annual revenue of between NT$600 million (US$19.5 million) and NT$1.4 billion, Wang said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel