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By Sammy Martin, Reporter
Administration Congressmen Monico Puentevella of
Bacolod and Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of Pampanga have
joined the campaign of convincing President Gloria Arroyo to suspend
the taxes on oil products amid the skyrocketing prices of basic
goods.
“The VAT [value-added tax] has helped the
country’s economy growth, but we need to have some new ways to
change the course or else the public will suffer,” Puentevella,
the vice chairman of House committee on Energy, said.
Puentevella already asked the President’s son,
Mikey Arroyo, to call for an urgent Energy committee meeting that
will review pending proposals to review the VAT on oil and the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira of 2001), saying he is
confident that Mikey can convince her mother to withdraw tax on oil
products.
True to Puentevella’s claims, Mikey Arroyo
said that he has instructed his staff to send out invitations to
possible resource persons for the Energy committee meeting to look
for possible short and long range remedies to the problem.
“If the Congress takes a stand and enlightens
her with some information, she will listen,” Mikey Arroyo added.
Likewise, the government’s critics are calling
on the government and Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to jointly
provide relief to power consumers by substantially lowering
electricity rates immediately.
Profitable operations
Since April, electricity rates have gone up to
more than 50 percent after Meralco imposed adjustments on its
generation, distribution, system loss, and transmission charges. The
overall increase in the billings averaged P0.97 per kilowatt hour.
The electric company increased its generation
charges by P0.51 per kilowatt hour and its distribution charges by
P0.30 per kilowatt hour.
Records show that the National Power Corp.
became number one in the top 1000 corporations in the Philippines in
2005 and 2006. The power company posted a net income of P90 billion
for 2006, up from P86 billion in 2005.
Napocor still has 15 independent power plants,
the largest of which are the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas-fired
power plant, the 700-MW Pagbilao coal-fired power plant, the
1,000-MW Sual coal-fired power plant, and the 345-MW San Roque hydroelectric
power plant.
Number three in the list is Meralco, which has
posted a 23 increase in net profits to P655 million in the first
quarter of 2008. In 2006, the country’s largest distribution
utility raked in P13.37 billion in net revenues.
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