Salceda: P206b in ‘disallowed expenses’ first agenda
A super committee of the House of Representatives will shift its focus from bringing down food prices to finding solutions to high electricity costs once session resumes next month, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said.
“We will soon convene a Murang Kuryente Super Committee,” said Salceda, presiding co-chairman of the Murang Pagkain Super Committee, also called the Quinta Committee.
The Quinta Committee was originally established to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into smuggling, price manipulation, and rising hunger, while advocating for systemic reforms to enhance food security and affordability.
Salceda said this was in line with Speaker Martin Romualdez’s instructions to go after price excesses in the power sector next.
“The most obvious (issue to be tackled first) is the Energy Regulatory Commission finding of some P206 billion in disallowed public relations, advertising, and other expenses in the 2016-2020 period, when the NGCP collected in excess of allowed annual revenues.”
The ERC, Salceda said, “already released this finding late last year.”
“It’s time for action now,” he added.
In the distribution sector, when utilities collect in excess of allowed revenues, they usually refund the excess collections without much issue, Salceda said.
The transmission sector, which he described as a national monopoly, should have no issue doing the same.
“The Speaker has also given instructions to study windfall taxes on excessive profits by power sector participants and plow such resources into consumer refunds and Pantawid Kuryente,” Salceda said.
As of March 2024, based on data culled by Statista, the Philippines had the second highest household electricity rate among ASEAN countries at $0.19 per kilowatt-hour, next only to Singapore at $0.24 per kilowatt-hour.
