Gov’t steps up grant of fuel subsidy to PUVs

The government – with the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Transportation (DOTr) in the lead – has stepped up grant of fuel subsidies to the country’s public utility vehicles (PUVs) via the Pantawid Pasada program.

This subsidy program has been cemented through a Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) inked by the relevant government agencies, such as Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as well as the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

At this stage though, there had been no specific amount yet committed by the State for the PUV cost discount scheme, primarily for the rollout of fuel vouchers.

Based on the pronouncement of the DOE, the subsidy scheme will latch greatly on the collaborative approach that the government will be having with the oil firms.

The department further laid down plans of extending “fuel vouchers to qualified franchise holders of public utility jeepneys.”

On the implementation domain, it shall be the DOTr that shall be taking the lead; but DOE will also be massively involved in the process especially in engaging the support of the oil firms.

Under the JMC, the energy department noted that it will be coordinating with the oil companies “to ensure their acceptance of Pantawid Pasada cards as mode of payment.”

The DOE along with the LBP, shall also be in charge of “identifying areas with limited or no access to retail point of sale (POS) systems, where vouchers instead of cards will be honored.”

For the DOE, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi stressed that they will be “proactively implementing mitigating measures to help cushion impact on the public,” primarily the so-called vulnerable sector like the PUVs.

The initial step toward the ‘subsidy provision scheme’ was actually through the ‘discounts’ extended by the oil companies – chiefly that of Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc.

The promise that Cusi set out will be for DOE being “ready to extend any assistance that may be needed by its partner agencies to successfully implement the fuel subsidy program.”