Photo from www.landbank.com
MANILA, Philippines — Aiming to provide convenience to its clients in the power sector, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has partnered with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) to make payments of application fees and other charges online.
ERC said in a statement that it has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the LANDBANK for what it calls an On-Line Collection (On-Coll) facility.
The LANDBANK’s On-Coll facility will be made available to ERC clients (which includes distribution utilities, the NGCP, generation companies and retail electricity suppliers, etc.) starting this month, ERC said.
Through the On-Coll facility, payments of ERC clients for the Supervision and Regulation Fees, application fees, permit fees, and other charges covered by a Statement of Account (SOA) could be made through any of the LANDBANK branches nationwide, ERC said.
The LANDBANK branches will accept payments from ERC clients only in these five specific forms: cash; manager’s check; cashier’s check; demand draft; “on-us” check and fund transfer, subject to a service charge of P50 per transaction.
Checks should be written as payable to ERC and should be made before the clearing cut-off time observed by the concerned LANDBANK branches.
No partial payments will be accepted by LANDBANK as only those checks bearing exact amounts on the SOA from the ERC can be processed, according to the ERC.
Payments will be accepted by LANDBANK branches provided that these are accompanied by the prescribed SOA from the ERC, and in three copies of the On-Coll Payment Slip. The first copy shall be the LANDBANK’s copy, the second shall be the payor’s copy, and the third copy shall be the ERC’s copy. The ERC’s copy will be given to the payor who shall submit the same to the ERC.
LANDBANK will update the ERC with a daily Online Collection Report (OCR) the following banking day through the LANDBANK’s weAccess Facility.
The OCR will contain the following information: SOA Number; ERC Agency Code; Revenue Code; Amount Paid; Check Number of Check Payments; LANDBANK Branch Code; and Date of Payment.
“Starting November 2013, ERC clients can conveniently place their payments at the nearest LANDBANK branch through the “On-Line Collection (On-Coll) Facility.”
“The On-Coll scheme will provide utmost convenience and savings in terms of money, time, and effort. Those in the provinces are those especially in mind as they will be spared from the rigorous travel to our central office in Pasig City to place their payments for their ERC transactions. All are encouraged to take advantage of this new technology, which is the modern, efficient, safer, and faster alternative in making payments to the ERC,” ERC chairperson Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut said.