Finally, some real steps to cut high power costs

IT has taken nearly eight months, but the most substantial proposal to lower consumer electricity bills to be offered in years now seems all but certain to become law within the next few weeks.

The “MurangKuryente [affordable electricity] Act” was Malampaya Fund, the pool of government royalties from “universal charges” that appear on every consumer’s electric bill, as well as missionary fund charges, and the feed-in tariff that subsidizes renewable energy.

As it stands now, both SB 924 and a counterpart version respective plenaries, and are awaiting action by a bicameral conference committee to produce a single compromise version to be forwarded to President Rodrigo Duterte for his signature. The main difference between the two measures is that the Senate version proposes to use the entire Malampaya Fund, which currently totals about P207 billion, while the

Senate Economic Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian told the media earlier this week he was anticipating that the bicameral committee would be able to tackle the two versions of the MurangKuryente measure “in about a week.” Congress is currently in recess ahead of the May 19 elections, but Gatchalian said legislators are using the time to complete some committee work.

The MurangKuryente which is the high cost of electricity borne by consumers and businesses. Under the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) Law of 2001, universal charges to recover stranded debt and stranded contract costs of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) were imposed on consumers, along with missionary charges (subsidies to provide electricity in economically unviable areas) and contributions to an environmental fund. Later, feed-in tariff charges were also added to help subsidize the development of renewable energy sources.

For a household using 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, these charges add about P0.64 per kWh, or a little more than P127 to the monthly bill. Removing them represents a substantial reduction in cost.

MurangKuryente Act is that it will greatly improve the productivity of the Malampaya Fund, which until now has been prone to waste and misuse. The Fund was development, but instead, has been used for a variety of non programs and the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program. The use of the Malampaya accounts has been hounded by controversy for years; about P900 million allegedly diverted to fake nongovernmental organizations as part of the infamous “pork barrel” scandal are currently the subject of numerous indictments

Diverting the funds instead to a limited number of line items on consumers’ electric bills is a transparent and easily manageable way to handle the money, and is in keeping with the Fund’s original “energy-related” intent. More importantly than that, it is a way for nearly every Filipino household and business to tan This is obviously much more appealing than the present sad circumstances of being compelled to pay the penalty for past governments’ mismanagement of electricity supply.

Our senators and congressional representatives should be given credit for shepherding the MurangKuryente Act this Rodrigo Duterte for his approval as quickly as possible.