Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi signed a joint circular enforcing the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 11371, or the “Murang Kuryente Act.”
The move will help power consumers who were forced to stay at home, with some losing their jobs amid the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine.
“We are glad that the IRR has finally been signed. This gives consumers relief from paying an estimated total additional amount of P0.86 per kilowatt-hour of universal charge for stranded contract costs and universal charge for stranded debt covering up to year 2024,” Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. president and chief executive Irene Besido Garcia said.
Garcia said households consuming 200 kWh of electricity a month will enjoy P172 monthly savings from reduced electricity rates or annual savings of P2,064.
The implementing rules and regulations for the MKA as contained in the Finance and Energy Department Joint Circular No. 1 were approved in consultation with the Department of Budget and Management, Bureau of Treasury and PSALM.
The MKA, which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on Aug. 8, 2019, legislates the use of P208 billion from the Malampaya fund to pay PSALM’s SCC and stranded debts that the agency assumed from National Power Corp.
Sections 2.4 and 9.1 of the MKA’s IRR state that no new UC for SCC and SD will be collected upon effectivity of the IRR, while Section 9.2 provides that, “PSALM shall not file with the ERC any new petition for UC stranded contract costs and stranded debts until the P208 billion allocated amount under this act [MKA] is exhausted and no other allocations are made by Congress.”