ERC, DSWD urged to accelerate clean-up of power subsidy list

By Myrna M. Velasco – February 16, 2023, 3:21 PM
from Manila Bulletin

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are being urged to accelerate the clean-up of the list of electric consumers entitled to the government’s “lifeline subsidy rate” to help tame the country’s rising inflation rate.

Senate Committee on Energy Vice Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian raised this matter with the two key agencies “because this is one way to help cushion the inflationary impact triggered by rising electricity rates.”

The lawmaker specified that in the current list of lifeliners or those who are entitled to cost subsidy on consumption below 100-kilowatt hours (kWhs), “there are still a lot of condominium residents, so the list has to be cleaned up.”

Based on the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), electricity was among the commodities which precipitated the record-high inflation rate of 8.7 percent in January this year.

According to ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta, the regulatory body has been working group with its counterpart agency on this, and “we are waiting for the list of 4Ps from DSWD because that will be our starting point.”

Under Republic Act 11552 or the Extended Lifeline Subsidy Act, the list of beneficiaries shall be based on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the government.

The 4P list is under the tutelage of the DWSD, while the PSA has been updating “poverty threshold” on a per province and per district level across local governments.

The validation of qualified customer-beneficiaries shall also be done with the help of the servicing distribution utilities (DUs), such as that of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and other private DUs as well as electric cooperatives.

Apart from condominium occupants, the other group of end-users that must be purged from the current list are those residing in posh villages and gated communities.

The law stretching the lifeline rate subsidy until 2050 specifically stipulated that “in order to provide assistance to electricity consumers, especially those living below the poverty line, and to achieve a more equitable distribution of the lifeline subsidy, a socialized pricing mechanism called a ‘lifeline rate’ for qualified marginalized end-users shall be set by the ERC.”

The determination of the subsidy rates to be extended to the qualified marginalized end-users had been vested as an authority to be exercised by the ERC, being the regulator of the restructured power industry.

As provided in the law, “the level of consumption, subsidy and rate shall be determined by the ERC after due notice and hearing.”

On establishing the database of Filipino consumers that may be eligible to avail of the extended lifeline rate discounts, the law decreed that the ERC “shall primarily use data from the PSA in the determination of the level of consumption.”

In the initial implementation of lifeline rate subsidy under Section 73 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), the tariff discounts ranged from 25 to 75-percent depending on the magnitude of power usage of the marginalized end-user or poor household customer, and the consumption range considered is zero to 100 kilowatt-hours.