The operator of an electronic freeway toll collection system admitted Saturday that it will fall short of the targeted usage rate for the system by the end of June, but it remains at odds with the government over how the problem should be solved. Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co. (FETC) , which was commissioned to set up the ETC service, said that with the ETC usage rate at 38 percent at present, it is not likely that the target rate for the end of June of 45 percent will be met. According to an agreement between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and FETC, the ETC usage rate is required to reach 45 percent by the end of June, and 65 percent by the end of 2012. The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau under the MOTC said it will send a notice to FETC next month asking the company to improve the situation within a specified time, but it acknowledged that the two sides have failed to reach any consensus on how to resolve the issue. The usage rate of the system, which collects tolls from freeway motorists automatically, has been hampered by resistance to installing the system's transmitter, the 'on board unit, ' which costs NT$1,199 (US$37). Since the ETC system was introduced four years ago, about 950,000 vehicles have installed the OBUs. The bureau has hoped that FETC would offer the OBU at a lower price or for free, but the company has rejected the idea, saying that free installations would cost the company over NT$6 billion, well above the company's NT$3.8 billion in capital. The FETC, on the other hand, has suggested many times since last year that the government should offer a 20 percent discount on tolls for ETC users, but the proposal has not yet been approved by the MOTC. Meanwhile, an MOTC official also said on Saturday that the low usage rate of the ETC system could delay the implementation of an automatic distance-based toll collection scheme, but did not elaborate. The ministry plans to replace both the frequency-based ETC and manned toll booths with a fully automatic distance-based toll collection model by the end of 2012. 