PSALM trims debt to ₱335.25 B

State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) has reduced its outstanding debt by ₱8.44 billion last year to ₱346.76 billion from the prior year’s ₱335.25 billion on higher revenues.

According to PSALM President and CEO Dennis Edward A. Dela Serna, the firm’s improved financial outcome had been mainly “buoyed by efforts to sell power supply at reasonable returns and asset disposal using streamlined procedures.”

Primarily on the continued divestment of real estate assets previously owned by its precursor-company National Power Corporation (NPC), the company generated upfront income of ₱1.84 billion.

Dela Serna expounded that revenue drivers had been “complemented by the efficient management of foreign exchange risks by contracting new loans in Philippine peso to refinance maturing foreigndenominated loans and the robust collection of outstanding receivables that have remained unpaid to PSALM for the longest time as well as the measures implemented to cut on operational costs.”

In terms of power sales, the government-owned company reported revenues shoring up of ₱18.94 billion within JanuaryNovember stretch last year; and that redounds to collection efficiency of 94.62-percent.

On the sphere of universal charge (UC) collections, PSALM said it equally transcended drawbacks, having logged fullyear 99.98 percent collection efficiency for aggregate remittances of ₱19.06 billion.

Additionally, interest earnings from deposits and placements of UC funds reached ₱342 million; while UC fund disbursements hovered at ₱18.921 billion.

With record-high UC collections, PSALM conveyed that it was able to dispense its collected universal charge-missionary electrification (UCME) to beneficiary-entities NPC as well as to the renewable energy (RE) developers.