Lower rates welcome but consumers wary of fee hikes

Consumer group CitizenWatch has cheered the orders of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that will result in the decrease in electricity prices for the months of June, July and August.

CitizenWatch secretary general Paco Pangalangan said: “The refund is a welcome development for ordinary Filipino consumers who survive from paycheck to paycheck, since these recent ERC orders will lead to a decrease of P285 in the electric bill of the typical household.”

“We only hope that the ERC continues to uphold the rights of consumers in light of reports of pending applications seeking to increase the fees charged on our monthly bill.” he added.

Among the petitions pending with the ERC is a request of National Transmission Corp. to increase Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) rates by 10 centavos a kilowatt-hour.

National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, meanwhile, has at least 15 pending petitions for rate increases to recover expenses arising from force majeure, particularly in the fixing of towers and lines damaged by typhoons, earthquakes and other natural calamities. (Visayas P0.19/kwh; Luzon P0.007/kwh; Mindanao P0.004/kwh).