Published June 29, 2020, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Power utility giant Manila Electric
Company (Meralco) is targeting to issue service disconnection notices to
customers with unpaid bills by September, although company executives indicated
that payment deadlines may still be extended.
According to Meralco Vice President
Lawrence S. Fernandez, the current directive from their management is “no
disconnection notice to be issued until August 31,” but any possible extension
to that is being studied.
Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga
qualified that “disconnection is farthest from the mission that we have right
now, which is to have 24/7 service and to keep the lights on,” thus,
disconnection of electricity service shall not be a concern that consumers
should be worrying about at this point.
Currently, customers are paying two
sets of billings monthly – one is on the installment payment for bills that
accrued during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ periods
falling due every 15th of the month; while the other is their dispatched bill
for the current month which has the usual due date as conventionally enforced
prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zaldarriaga noted that if a customer
will not be able to pay all of the bills-for-installment in a given month, and
had just settled portion of it, that customer will still not be issued with
disconnection notice.
Agnes R. Macob, head of commercial
operations of Meralco, further explained that “the parameters of disconnection
have not been discussed yet,” so the company does not have exact inkling right
now which customers will eventually be covered – since some subscribers also
have payables as early as the pre-ECQ months and even latter part of last year.
“We are discussing on the parameters
on those who we will be disconnected, but Meralco is very, very considerate
now… so the disconnection process may eventually be moved,” she stressed.
Zaldarriaga emphasized that all
customers – including the 2.8 million end-users that did not have their meter
readings last month – will already receive their bills with actual meter
readings – and that shall be the basis of their installment payments as
warranted.
On the massive complaints lodged
against the utility firm because of the summer-lockdown bill shocks, he noted that
they are addressing these concerns employing “one-on-one approach” and many
customers have so far understood explanations on why their electricity usage
surged within the March-May duration.
Presently, Meralco executives said
their collection efficiency is already inching close to 50-percent;
significantly rising from a very dismal level of 3.0-percent at the height of
the ECQ in April.
Zaldarriaga emphasized there are
customers opting to pay in full; while the rest would still prefer the
installment-payments given the rough financial situation that some customers
have been going through after the lockdown.
Fernandez noted that while the
company’s collections is still considerably low compared to almost 100-percent
prior to the pandemic, the utility firm shoulders additional cost burden
because it has been paying its suppliers and the transmission service provider
in full.
Fortunately for Meralco, the utility
firm indicated that despite disrupted revenue stream, there are no imminent
employee lay-offs and deferments of projects are just mainly due to logistical
constraints like permitting and deployment of people and not on financial
strains.
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