DUs, coops directed to refund FIT-All, UC-EC charges during lockdown

By Myrna M. Velasco – July 8, 2020, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

The country’s private distribution utilities and electric cooperatives had been directed to refund the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) and universal charge-environmental charge (UC-EC) that they have collected during the March to May coronavirus pandemic lockdown in the country.

These two rate components will be among the pay-back they shall implement for the  electricity consumers; on top of the over-payments that they have also collected relative to the issuance of “estimated billings” at the height of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ periods in various parts of the country.

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Spokesperson Floresinda B. Digal indicated they will issue an advisory on the mandated refund so the ratepayers could gain financial relief from these cost components in their electric bills; as well as on the over-payments from the estimated billings.

The order, she said, will not just cover power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) but all private DUs and electric cooperatives servicing customers all over the country.

She emphasized that based on their initial evaluation of complaints lodged by roughly 50,000 consumers served by various DUs and electric cooperatives nationwide, they established that there were power utilities which failed to comply with the ERC directives on suspension of pass-on of some rates components in the bill – primarily the FIT-All in March and April; then the UC-EC in May.