Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:43 AM
August 19, 2019
MANILA, Philippines — Energy
Secretary Alfonso Cusi has ordered the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to stop
its plan to raise generation charges in missionary and off-grid islands of the
country by passing on to consumers the taxes and added fuel costs.
Cusi said Napocor should instead
find ways to reduce missionary subsidies by improving operational efficiency.
Cusi issued the directive to Pio
Benavidez, Napocor president, after the state-owned corporation petitioned the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to increase missionary generation charges in
off-grid islands.
The increase would result in the
poorer consumers in off-grid islands paying much more in generation charges
than Metro Manila consumers.
Napocor had filed an application
with the ERC to increase the missionary generation charge in off-grid
communities by P2.9140 per kilowatt-hour in Luzon, P3.4034 per kWh in the
Visayas and P3.4515 per kWh in Mindanao.
This would raise the generation
charge by more than 50 percent to P8.5544 per kWh.
In his memorandum to Benavidez, Cusi
expressed serious concern that the generation charge of P8.5544 per kWh sought
by Napocor—compared to the P5.25 charge in Manila—would further burden
consumers in the poorer, off-grid islands.
Keep rates affordable
This, he said, is contrary to the
government’s mandate to keep power rates affordable under the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act of 2001.
He further directed Napocor to
reduce missionary subsidies instead of passing on to poorer areas the costs of
taxes and fuel and other costs that would cause this 51-percent increase in
their generation rate.
Napocor had applied to pass on to
consumers the added taxes on fuel being used to generate power in off-grid
islands (P1.9648/kWh).
This is on top of its previous
application for an increase of P0.9492/kWh, bringing the total increase to
P2.9140/kWh.
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