January 20, 2019 | 11:14 pm
THE House Committee on Energy will
continue on Tuesday deliberations on the draft Substitute Bill proposing to use
the Malampaya fund to pay for the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) Stranded
Contract Costs (SCC) and Stranded Debt.
The draft Substitute Bill
consolidated House Bills No. 8082, 8327 and 8352, which intends to minimize the
universal charge, thereby reducing electricity rates. The universal charge is
an imposition passed on to consumers to cover for NPC’s obligations.
The bills propose that the proceeds
of the Net National Government share from the Malampaya fund will be remitted
to a Special Trust Fund.
The fund will be managed by the
Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), which assumed all
obligations of the NPC.
HBs 8082 and 8327 provided that once
the SCC and SD have been paid in full before the end of PSALM’s corporate life,
the “Net National Government Share, shall accrue back to the Special Fund used
to finance energy resource development and exploitation programs.”
The fund was created under
Presidential Decree No. 910, which created the Energy Development Board.
House Bill No. 8352, written by
Magdalo Rep. Gary C. Alejano, proposes instead that the funds accrue to the
National Treasury.
Meanwhile, its counterpart measure,
Senate Bill No. 924, written by Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, has been
introduced to the plenary for second reading. — Charmaine A. Tadalan
No comments:
Post a Comment