Taiwan is reviewing draft amendments to the Natural Gas Business Act, aimed at empowering the energy regulatory authority to review natural gas prices and basic fees on a periodic basis. Revisions to the act are summarized as follows:
• Public natural gas utilities should satisfy the demands of households, commercial enterprises and service enterprises before supplying natural gas to other sectors. (Clarification on Article 33)
• The regulatory authority may review natural gas prices and basic fees on a periodic basis, with assistance from the review committee mentioned in the second paragraph of Article 32. (Addition to Article 34)
• For greater flexibility and effectiveness, the regulatory authority may commission professional agencies to help conduct business inspections. (Addition to Article 52)
• In all penalty provisions, the phrase "may be consecutively penalized each time" should be reworded as "may be penalized each time." (Legal style change to Articles 58 to 63)