ERC urged act on P108-B overbillings

May 28, 2020 | Filed under: News | Posted by: Tempo Desk
http://tempo.com.ph/2020/05/28/erc-urged-act-on-p108-b-overbillings/

Party-list group Bayan Muna has urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to make the Manila Electric Co. apply as customer payments portions from P108 billion in overcharges, over-recoveries, and bill deposits that it collected and accumulated over the years.

“This huge amount of money should have been refunded to Meralco’s customers years ago. In this time of great difficulty and need, it is unconscionable for Meralco to continue holding on to these funds that do not belong to it anyway,” said Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares.

“It’s equally dismaying that the ERC has not acted on these Meralco violations despite the persistent complaints of its customers over the years,” Colmenares said. “Meralco should do the proper and honorable thing by just returning the money to the rightful owners and applying it as payment or a Meralco COVID-19 Buffer Fund for electricity consumed during the enhanced community quarantine,” the Bayan Muna leader added.

“But if Meralco continues to play dumb and deaf to consumers’ complaints, the ERC should act and force the return of these funds. The return of these amounts should not stop the ERC from forcing Meralco to refund also excess charges that it has imposed during the period when we were under an enhanced community quarantine,” Colmenares stressed.

“Meralco cannot even claim the return of these funds as its donation because the money is owned by the customers in the first place. ERC should prioritize enforcing the return of the customers’ money now when millions of Filipinos are displaced from work and cut from their source of livelihood,” he said.

House Deputy Minority Leader Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said these “P40 billion to P50 billion in Meralco overcharges between 2003 and 2019, another P29.6 billion in Meralco over-recoveries from 2013 to 2018, and the additional P29 billion in Meralco bill deposits as of 2018, if given back to the people, will certainly go a long way to help them especially in this time of severe crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.”