Extended PSALM life a fiscal boost
‘I think its life should be extended. PSALM has so many debts to settle and assets to sell’
‘I think its life should be extended. PSALM has so many debts to settle and assets to sell’
The corporate life of the state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) should be extended by at least 25 years, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said yesterday.
“I think it should be extended. PSALM has so many debts to settle and assets to sell,” Recto explained.
“We had a meeting earlier on the privatization of CBK (Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan) hydroelectric power plant,” Recto said at the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines induction last week.
By selling the 796.46-megawatt CBK plant, he said, PSALM could generate anywhere from P50 billion to P100 billion that could help plug the deficit.
Auction within year
“There will be a bidding in the next few months and awarding would be next year,” he added.
PSALM recently closed the sale of the 165-megawatt Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Ecija to Fresh River Lakes Corp., a subsidiary of the Lopez Group’s First Gen Corp., for $526 million.
PSALM is also studying the rehabilitation of the Agus-Pulangi hydro complex in Mindanao. As per the previous estimates of the World Bank, the facility is about $350 million worth.
Additionally, PSALM wanted to privatize and dispose of the 200-MW Mindanao coal-fired power plant, 72 hectares of real estate assets in Bagac, Diliman, Sucat and Baguio, as well as land underlying independent power producer plants.
PSALM was created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to manage the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp. It sought a 30-year life extension.
In 2021, the House Committee on Energy approved the measure extending the corporate life of PSALM.
The panel, chaired by Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, approved the committee report and substitute bill to House Bill 10006.
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