Fund to cover utility fee upsurge

To ease consumers’ burden in shouldering the universal charges on their monthly electric bills, the Senate Committee on Energy is mulling over the use of the ₱P204 billion Malampaya fund to halt the upsurge of utility fees.

Committee chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that if approved, the move could result in annual household savings of as high as ₱P2,033.76.

“These savings are enough for an underprivileged household to buy two additional sacks of rice every year,” Gatchalian said.

During yesterday’s hearing, the committee took up Senate Bill 924, authored by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto and proposed to allocate the net national government share from the Malampaya Natural Gas Project for the payment of the stranded contract costs (SCC) and stranded debts (SD) of the National Power Corporation.

SCC and SD are components used to compute the UC imposed on consumers under the EPIRA Law (RA 9136).

According to the data presented by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), applying the remaining ₱204 billion of the Malampaya fund would avoid an increase of ₱0.8474 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in retail power rates.

This will result in annual savings of ₱2,033.76 for an average household consuming 200 kWh per month.

The committee members expressed support to the measure subject to further study on precisely how much of the remaining Malampaya funds should be applied for the purpose.

Also, the commmittee took to task once more the embattled Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for several delays in the approval of SCC and SD rate applications.

According to PSALM, the various delays have resulted in an additional ₱34.78 billion of costs shouldered by consumers, equivalent to a power rate increase of ₱0.1973 per kWh.

ERC representatives were rebuffed during the hearing for the delays which caused so much to the paying public.