On June 13, Japan Industrial & Medical Gases Association (JIMGA) held its annual regular convention and a press conference at the same time in which JIMGA ‘s directional policy from now on was explained regarding the measures to deal with the electricity issue together with the responding conditions of other major subjects.

With regard to the new electricity rate-increase of Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) from April 1 among the issues related to electricity, JIMGA has been insisting upon the principle to keep paying the conventional rate even after April 1 now that JIMGA’s request for control of rate-increase was not responded appropriately by TEPCO. According to the industrial gas manufacturers, however, financial institutions rejected to receive any payment of electricity rates different from those billed by TEPCO for April and they were not informed by TEPCO of any account number for their remittance. They also thought of a means of “deposition” and visited Legal Affairs Bureau for consultation, but they replied TEPCO’s rate-increase at this time was regarded as not applicable to deposition.

They said, “For the moment we pay the rate as billed by TEPCO, but we already sent by certified mail in early May our letter to TEPCO stating that the payment was based on the conditions of TEPCO’s refunding the balance between a new liberalized rate reviewed later and the rate paid on and after April 1 with the addition of the incurred interest equivalent to 10%.”

As for responding to the tight electricity supply and the planned outage in the coming summer due to the suspended nuclear power plants, JIMGA said, ” We explained to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) importance of industrial gases as key infrastructure for all industries and to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) importance of medical gases for human life, and so that they could understand necessity to exempt air-separation units from the power outage plan. We were answered by Resources and Energy Agency that any preferential measure could be applied. Regarding medical gases, however, we are negotiating again through MHLW to make them exceptional even in part.