ENERGY SUBSIDIES CUT AS OIL HITS $135

By Kathrin Hille in Taipei, John Burton in Singapore and Raphael Minder in Hong Kong
Friday, May 23, 2008

Asian governments yesterday moved to cut energy subsidies to protect their finances and those of state-owned energy companies in the face of soaring oil prices.
亚洲各国政府昨日开始削减能源补贴，以便在油价飞升的情况下保护政府财政和国有能源公司的财务状况。

As crude oil pushed through $135 a barrel for the first time, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia announced plans for urgent action to free prices or cut subsidy costs. China denied market rumours of an imminent increase in retail prices, but is widely believed to be preparing to relax price controls.

"It is probably more affordable for a country like China to subsidise than Indonesia," said Peter Gastreich, oil and gas analyst at UBS in Hong Kong. "But if oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country's best interest to keep subsidising these prices indefinitely."
瑞银(UBS)驻香港的油气分析师彼得•加斯特莱齐(Peter Gastreich)表示："对中国这样的国家来说，补贴能力要强于印度尼西亚。但如果价格一直上涨，对任何国家来说，无止境地价格补贴都不是最好的。"

In Taiwan, the first act of the newly elected administration of President Ma Ying-jeou was to abolish price controls on petrol and diesel from June 1. The new government also said it would raise electricity prices in July.
在台湾，新任总统马英九的第一项行动就是将在6月1日废除汽油和柴油的价格管制。新政府还表示，将在7月份提高电价。

Malaysia said it would soon announce a new petroleum subsidy scheme to keep its fuel subsidy bill at around last year's level of M$40bn ($12.5bn) in spite of rising oil prices. With oil at $130 a barrel, the bill would reach M$48bn in the current fiscal year, exceeding the M$40bn that the government plans to spend on infrastructure and other development projects.
马来西亚表示，将很快宣布一项新的石油补贴计划，以便在石油价格不断上涨的情况下，将燃料补贴账单保持在去年400亿林吉特（合125亿美元）的水平附近。随着油价突破130美元，此账单在当前的财政年度将会达到480亿林吉特，超过政府计划用于基础设施和其它开发建设项目的补贴金额（400亿林吉特）。

Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Malaysia's finance minister, also suggested the government would take the unpopular step of raising electricity tariffs. "If there is a rise in the price of [natural] gas, we will have to pass that along, since we are not going to see Tenaga [the state power monopoly] lose money," he said.
马来西亚财政部长诺尔•穆罕默德•雅各布(Nor Mohamed Yakcop)还暗示，政府将采取一项不受欢迎的措施：提高电价。他表示："如果天然气价格上升，我们将不得不转嫁出去，因为我们不想见到（国家电力垄断公司）Tenaga亏本。"

The Indonesian government said it would "soon" go ahead with a plan to raise fuel prices by an average of 28.7 per cent.
印度尼西亚政府表示，将"很快"实施一项计划，把燃料价格平均提高28.7%。

论坛节目参与地址： 【英文报刊翻译080523】油价冲破135美元 亚洲各国开始削减能源补贴>>>