Bill simplifying energy permit process hurdles Senate on 3rd reading

THE Senate approved on third and final reading yesterday the Energy Virtual One Stop Shop (EVOSS), a bill which seeks to do away with much of the bureaucracy hindering the establishment of power facilities.

Senate Bill No. 1439 or the EVOSS Act of 2017, written by the chair of the Senate committee on energy Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, “seeks to streamline the permitting process of new energy generation projects, thus cutting the length of the permitting process in half.”

EVOSS is an online system that allows single submission and synchronous processing of required information and provides a single decision making portal for the evaluation of new power generation projects.

“Greater eff iciency under the EVOSS system will result in a welcome bump in disposable income for the average Filipino family. We will be putting a lot of money back where it belongs — in the pockets of Filipino families struggling to pay their basic day-to-day expenses,” Mr. Gatchalian said in a statement.

“The platform effectively eliminates ( 1) repetitive form submission, ( 2) the need to physically transport documents from one agency to another, and ( 3) existing constraints that prevent multiple agencies from simultaneously processing applications,” Mr. Gatchalian added.

Each public body involved in the process will be required to resolve all papers pending before them within a prescribed period of time in order to ensure the timely processing of applications.

The senator also said that the bill aims “to rejuvenate and infuse greater competition into the local energy sector, which would result in a larger energy supply and cheaper generation costs.”

“Based on my conversations with industry analysts and own internal research, cutting down red tape could reduce consumer electricity prices by as much as P1 per kilowatt- hour,” Mr. Gachalian said.

“An extra P2,400 can do a lot for a family. That is enough to buy a sack of rice with some extra cash to spend on tuition and school supplies for the children, health care, and other essentials,” Mr. Gatchalian added. —