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The government should consider revamping the management of National
Power Corp. (Napocor) in the light of revelation made by the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) that the state-owned power firm had
over-recovered P10 billion in generation charges from its customers.
The suggestion was made over the weekend by the militant Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan.
“The problem is not the state ownership of
Napocor. The problem lies partly with the people running Napocor and
the policies governing the power industry. The deregulation of the
industry makes the Napocor officials run the power firm like a mere
business venture instead of serving the public,” it said in a
statement.
“We want Napocor to remain state-owned but run
by competent and pro-consumer officials,” the group added.
Consumer group People Opposed to Warrantless
Electricity Rates (POWER) also scored Napocor for the alleged
over-recoveries.
“It is therefore understandable that despite
the appreciating value of the peso, electricity consumers still pay
a lot because Napocor did not lower its rates when it had to. We
believe that the generation sector, being a very important aspect of
the power industry, must be subjected to stricter regulation,”
POWER said also in a statement.
The group sought a refund—an immediate
20-centavo rate reduction in generation charges—if it is proved
that Napocor overcharged consumers.
It said that even if Napocor manages to justify
the amounts collected “by some sort of accounting wizardry,”
there had been a violation of the guidelines set by the ERC.
Napocor recorded around P89 billion in revenues
in 2006, the year when the over-recoveries started.
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