By
Jovee Marie de la Cruz - February 6, 2019
THE House of
Representatives has approved on third and final reading a measure seeking to
reduce the cost of electricity bills down to the household level by allocating
parts of the Malampaya Fund for the payment of the stranded contract costs
and stranded debts of the National Power Corp. (NPC).
House Committee on
Energy Chairman Lord Allan Velasco said House Bill 8869, otherwise known as the
“murang kuryente” bill, will allocate about P123 billion from the net national
government share of the Malampaya Fund to NPC.
According to Velasco,
the projected savings as a result of this measure is about P0.574 per
kilowatt-hour, or savings of P115 per month for an average household consuming
200 kWh per month.
Such savings, he says,
would mean more money spent on other essential consumer goods, such as rice for
the family.
Under the bill, the net
national government’s share from Malampaya Fund will be remitted to a special
trust fund which will be administered by the Power Sector Assets and
Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).
Velasco added that one
of the goals of the “Murang Kuryente” bill is also to provide substantial funds
to the Philippine National Oil Co.(PNOC) for research and exploration of
indigenous energy resources that will ultimately help in lowering electricity
rates.
He said the bill also
mandates the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) to exercise oversight
function over the implementation of the bill to ensure that the amount
allocated is reflected fully as a reduction in the amount of universal charges
(UC) being collected from all electricity consumers nationwide from 2020 to
2022.
The Senate has already
approved its version of the bill. The two chambers are expected to set the
bicameral committee hearing to reconcile their different versions of the
proposal.
With this, Rep. Carlos
Roman Uybarreta of 1-CARE party-list, one of the principal authors of the bill,
said, “considering how many of the provisions of HB 8869 are essentially similar
to Senate Bill 1950, it would also be possible for the Department of Energy to
undertake preparatory steps for the crafting of the implementing rules and
regulations, so that when the bill becomes law, it can be carried out sooner
rather than later or even hit the ground running, thereby bringing immediate
cost relief to all electricity consumers.”
According to the Epira
law, “stranded contract costs of NPC or distribution utility” refer to the
excess of the contracted cost of electricity under eligible contracts over the
actual selling price of the contracted energy output of such contracts in the
market. In electricity billings, the stranded cost is part of the universal
charges.” The same law also defines stranded debts of NPC as “any unpaid
financial obligations of NPC which have not been liquidated by the proceeds
from the sales and privatization of NPC assets.
No comments:
Post a Comment