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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
Nowhere in the Electric Power Industry Reform
Act (EPIRA) of 2001 does it say that other consumers should pay for
subsidies being given by Meralco to its marginalized customers, the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) asserted in the omnibus
petition it filed before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Instead of passing subsidies to its other
customers, DTI said Meralco should absorb these costs and refund its
users as well as expand its lifeline coverage to 150 kilowatt-hours.
“There is no provision in RA 9136 authorizing a lifeline subsidy
to be paid by all other classes of consumers,” it said.
At present, Meralco customers consuming less
than 100 kilowatt-hours of electicity are shouldered by larger power
users under the giant distribution utility’s lifeline rate
discount program.
DTI asked ERC to compel Meralco to extend
preferential treatment to poor households and provide incentives to
power-intensive industries in the allocation of transmission
charges, without prejudicing other classes of consumers, in
accordance with the EPIRA.
DTI also asked ERC to order Meralco to be
prudent in its purchase of electricity by buying from the Wholesale
Electricity Spot Market (WESM) during off-peak hours when prices are
cheaper; to charge distribution rate at least equal to or lower than
the distribution charges of other utilities; and stop recovering
system loss “as RA 7832 is vague and therefore, void for lack of
legal basis.”
President Gloria Arroyo earlier directed the DTI
to file a petition before the ERC for a number of proposals at the
Philippine Energy Summit early in the year in hopes of trimming
Lopez-controlled Meralco’s electricity charges.
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