Blue-white coalition threatens to cut CPC Corp's NT$233.8 billion budget top-up
Taiwan's opposition is threatening to strike the entire NT$233.8 billion capital injection for state oil company CPC from a new supplementary budget, setting up a fight over who pays for years of frozen fuel prices.
- The cabinet passed a supplementary budget of about NT$607 billion, with CPC's injection making up the largest single chunk.
- The government held down fuel and electricity prices after the Ukraine and Middle East wars sent energy costs soaring, and CPC absorbed the losses.
- CPC and state utility Taipower swallowed roughly NT$181 billion in costs to keep prices stable, and private refiner Formosa Plastics is owed subsidies too.
- The KMT says CPC's losses are old news, not an emergency, and accuses the cabinet of sneaking a huge sum through with only three months left in the year.
- Without the injection, CPC would struggle to repay debt or fund projects like its Taichung expansion and offshore receiving terminal.
Outlook: The budget heads to the legislature for a line-by-line fight, and a full cut would leave CPC's mounting losses unresolved.