Tepco seeks an extra $9bn in aid to pay compensation

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has asked the government for an extra 690bn yen ($9bn; £5.6bn) to compensate victims of the nuclear crisis.

 

The firm has already received $7.1bn in public funds, and there is growing speculation it may be nationalised.

“We have reviewed the estimated sum of compensation after the committee addressing compensation disputes decided on additional measures to compensate victims who voluntarily evacuated,” Tepco said in a statement.

Last week, the company announced that it was raising electricity prices for corporate clients for the first time in more than 30 years, due to a higher cost of operations.

The quake and tsunami forced it to shut 15 of its 17 nuclear power plants, and resort to thermal power stations for electricity generation, increasing its fuel costs.

To make matters worse, a panel investigating the Fukushima nuclear disaster has chastised the company for being ill-prepared for such a calamity.

It said response failures and the general lack of preparedness worsened the effects of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Tepco provides almost one-third of Japan’s electricity, and powers some of the most economically important areas of the country. A failure of the company is likely to have disastrous consequences.

That has led to growing speculation that the government may take over the firm.

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