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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo Reporter
MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) charges the highest distribution fees
in the Philippines, according to a nongovernment consumer advocacy
group.
In study done by Freedom from
Debt Coalition (FDC), the group said the Lopez family-controlled
Meralco billed its customers the highest, charging clients P1.6615 a
kilowatt-hour in distribution charges, P0.5271 for supply service
and P0.2435 for metering fees.
In contrast, Aboitiz family-led
Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) charges consumers in Metro Cebu about
P1.0773 a kilowatt-hour for distribution, P0.2712 for supply
services and P0.1924 for metering services. Based on the total of
these three revenue items that go to the Veco, Meralco’s fees are
higher by 57.8 percent, or P0.89 a kilowatt-hour.
In Davao City, Davao Light and
Power Co., another Aboitiz company, charges consumers P1.2409 a
kilowatt-hour for distribution, zero for supply services and P0.2249
for metering services. This means that Meralco’s charges are 60
percent, or P0.9663 a kilowatt-hour higher.
Meralco, which has a system
demand of 5,400 megawatts compared with 280 for Cebu and 250 for
Davao, serves the Philippines’ largest economic region of Metro
Manila and the highly industrialized
Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon growth corridor, distributing 70
percent of the country’s power consumption.
FDC questioned the high rates
Meralco charges, noting the country’s largest electricity
distributor enjoys “a lot of economic and financial and operations
advantages.”
“Being a huge distribution
facility which wields a lot of clout, Meralco could demand lower
prices for a lot of the supplies and materials it needs for their
distribution service. Of course, if its main concern is providing
the lowest or cheapest power rates to its consumers as the public
franchise that the government gave it demands,” the NGO said.
FDC suspects that Meralco’s
rate base or the valuation of the assets that it uses to provide the
distribution services is bloated.
“Meralco has already been
accused before of padding its rate base by adding nonessential and
luxury assets such as the maintenance cost of the Rockwell property
that it eventually turned into a multibillion shopping area, the
Meralco Theater and gymnasium, and a luxury estate in Antipolo that
has been made to look like a training center but is actually a
profit center as other private companies pay to use it,” the NGO
said.
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