Chu Shao-hua, president of the CPC, made the remarks in response to the Economics and Energy committee of the Legislative Yuan having passed a provisional motion on Wednesday calling for the CPC to freeze oil price hikes if the price of 95-octane unleaded gasoline hits a high of NT$32.5 per liter and diesel oil price reaches NT$28 per barrel. But the motion is not a binding one.

Chu said it was too early to discuss freezing oil price hikes, reasoning that while the domestic oil price should be raised by NT$1 for every US$5 hike per barrel in international crude oil price, a freeze on the NT$1 price hike would make CPC suffer a monthly loss of NT$1 billion.

At the moment, the international crude oil price stands at around US$79 per barrel.

Chu said that the CPC suffered an aggregate loss of over NT$100 billion as a result of a six-month freeze on domestic oil price hike, running from December 2007 to May 2008.

Also yesterday, Vice Economic Minister Lin Chung-sheng said the Ministry of Economic Affairs cannot agree with the resolution made by the Economics and Energy Committee of the Legislative Yuan requesting a freeze on oil price hikes.

Lin continued, however, that his ministry is reviewing the floating oil price system, and will consider adopting a variety of means to absorb the extra crude oil import costs.