NGCP franchise in danger

The House Committee on Energy on Monday warned the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for its failure to implement the initial public offering (IPO) provided under the law, saying that the committee may withdraw the legislative franchise granted to the agency.

In a statement, PBA Partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles stressed that the delayed mandatory IPO is not the only main concern of lawmakers, adding that there has been a significant drop in tax collections from its operations ever since the firm was privatized some ten years ago.

“There are issues raised against officials that could be plunderous,” said Nograles, who is also the vice chairman of the House panel.

Nograles noted that grave concerns over the NGCP were aired by a number of congressmen who attended Monday’s committee meeting on the state of the electricity market and power transmission in the country.

NGCP was among the parties scheduled to brief the energy committee on the subject but its president and some key officials failed to show up.

“The committee is very angry,” said Nograles. “We feel that the president of the NGCP failed to show up because of the inquiry on the monopoly of the agency, which also signaled lower tax collections and higher dividends to NGCP.”

The lawmaker said that the NGCP has been raking in P16 billion to P18 billion in dividends to its shareholders annually, but it has delayed the implementation of the capital expenditures so required under the law, including investment to the national grid.

A motion to investigate the power transmission operator was swiftly approved as lawmakers noted that the NGCP has made moves to delay further the IPO for still unknown reasons.

Nograles explained that under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 and as provided by the legislative franchise granted by Congress, NGCP is mandated to make a public offering within ten years since it operated and he revealed that the NGCP filed a motion to further delay the IPO as the ten-year deadline passed.

“But that is not the point of what the law is all about. The point of the law is that monopoly in grid operation is prohibited in the country,” said Nograles.