Appeals court rules:
Power Consumers to Get P6.4-Bn Refund

Is relief in the offing for customers of Meralco? They stand to get a refund from a Jan. 25 decision of the Court of Appeals annulling the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) approval in 2003 of Meralco’s rates unbundling scheme. When they will get it, however, is another issue as the ERC may appeal the case before the Supreme Court.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) may heave a sigh of relief, no matter how temporary, as they stand to get a refund from a decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) last Jan. 25 that annulled the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) approval on May 30, 2003 of Meralco’s rates unbundling scheme.

The approval of the unbundling scheme included an increase of P0.17 ($0.0030, based on a $1:P56 exchange rate) per kilowatt-hour (kwh) in Meralco rates. Because of this, a rollback of P0.17 per kilowatt-hour should be immediately implemented, according to Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chair of the scientists’ group Agham (Association of Science and Technology Advocates for the People).

However, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chair Rodolfo Albano said that they may appeal the CA decision before the Supreme Court “if only to preserve the independence and protect the integrity of the ERC.”

For most consumers, power rates have increased by an average of almost 30 percent since the implementation of Meralco’s unbundling scheme. Based on data from Meralco, the increases in its charges since the unbundling of power rates are as follows: 

Refund

Tapang, a physics professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) who is also a convenor of the broad alliance People Opposed to Warrantless Rates Increases (POWER), said in a Jan. 26 statement that Agham estimates the refund to total P6.4 billion ($114.29 million).

Based on monthly usage, Agham projected that households could receive refunds ranging from P170 (50 kwh monthly) to P1,700 (500 kwh monthly). (See Table 2)

For his part, Engr. Ramon Ramirez, a convenor of POWER, said that a refund of P680 ($12.14) is “such a good prospect in these hard times.”

In the National Capital Region (NCR) where most of Meralco’s customers reside, the daily cost of living for a family of six – the average Filipino family – amounts to P602.31 ($10.76) as of Dec. 2004, based on a study by the socio-economic think tank IBON Foundation.

Meanwhile, the minimum wage in the same region amounts to only P250 ($4.46) basic rate plus P50 ($0.89) cost-of-living allowance – a total of P300 ($5.36) a day, which is P302.31 ($5.40) short of the daily cost of living for a family of six in the NCR.

But the P6.4 billion ($114.29 million) in refunds is not the only thing that power consumers should get, says Tapang. “The actual refund should be bigger since there are other rate increases dependent on the unbundling case whose collection should also be stopped,” he explained. Bulatlat

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