Consumers are facing higher fuel and power rates as oil companies implement a pump price hike of as much as P2.60 per liter on Tuesday while Manila Electric Co. said there is an “upward pressure” in the generation charge it passes on to its customers for April bills.
“There may be upward pressure on the generation charge in April. This is due to the collection of deferred generation costs from last month, equivalent to P0.20 centavos per kilowatt-hour this billing period,” Meralco spokesperson and vice president Joe Zaldarriaga said.
He said lower prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the trading floor of electricity, and lower average capacity on outages in March may mitigate the increase from the deferred generation charge.
“The peso’s appreciation may likewise temper any upward pressure on the generation charge,” Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco’s rates went up by P0.5453 per kWh in March, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.4348 per kWh from P10.8895 per kWh in February.
The impact on consumers would have been higher had the company decided not to defer the collection of a portion of the generation charge amounting to P0.40 per kWh for a total cost of P1.1 billion.
Meralco head of regulatory management office Jose Ronald Valles earlier said the deferred costs reduced the March month’s generation rates by P0.40 per kWh and will be billed on a staggered basis in April and May.
Meanwhile, oil firms raised the price of gasoline by P2.60 per liter, kerosene by P1.90 per liter, and diesel by P1.70 per liter effective Tuesday as world oil prices surged following the decision of Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut its oil output.
Saudi Arabia and OPEC announced last week a reduction in the oil output by 1.16 million barrels per day to boost prices.
“Cleanfuel will implement price adjustment, effective Tuesday, April 11 at 4:01 PM. Diesel increased by P1.70 per liter and gasoline by P2.60 per liter increase,” the company said.
PetroGazz, Jetti Petroleum, and Seaoil Philippines also issued separate advisories of the latest oil price hike.
On April 4, the oil companies implemented a per-liter increase of P1.40 per liter for gasoline, P0.50 per liter for diesel, and P0.20 per liter for kerosene.
The Department of Energy said these resulted in a year-to-date net decrease for diesel at P3.65 per liter and kerosene at P5.35 per liter. Gasoline has a net increase of P6.05 per liter.
