ERC: Meralco customers with paid excess bills to get rebate or refund

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has assured its customers who have paid for excess electricity bills, that they will be getting a rebate or a refund of their extra payments, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) revealed on Wednesday.

ERC chairperson Agnes Devanadera said Meralco assured the commission that it is reviewing all consumer complaints on the sudden increase of electric bills during the period when quarantine protocols are set up in the country.

“Kung kayo ay nakapagbayad na—kasi merong mga tao na talagang nakapagbayad na—ang assurance sa atin ng Meralco at ‘yun ang ating hiningi, ay kailangan i-rebate or i-refund,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(If you have already paid your bills—because there are people who have already paid bills—the assurance of Meralco is there will be a rebate or refund according to our directive.)

“Ang sabi nila (Meralco) on general terms, kung lahat ng nagbayad na doon sa bill na makikita nila na sa recomputation nila ay talagang sumobra, bibigyan ng rebate, and sabi nga namin baka i-consider na ninyo ‘yung refund,” said the ERC chairperson.

(On general terms, they said that if they see that based on their recomputation, the bills really exceeded that what was supposed to be, they will be given a rebate, and we said maybe they can also consider a refund.)

Meanwhile, Devanadera added that Meralco also assured it will disregard in its computation the Guaranteed Minimum Billing Demand (GMBD) or the minimum demand in kilowatts (kW) for business customers with a contracted capacity of 5 kW and above.

“Nagkausap na kami tungkol dyan, at ang ang sinabi naman ng Meralco, they will disregard the minimum and instead go to the actual (We spoke about this, and Meralco told us they will disregard the minimum and instead go to the actual),” she said.

“At this point in time, you are prevented from opening your company, so how can you even have a minimum, so dinisregard na ‘yan (so that was disregarded), ‘yan ang sinabi sa amin ng Meralco ididisregard nila (Meralco told us they will disregard it). Ididisregard nila ‘yan at kung ano ang actual na makita nila dun yun ang ibibill nila (They will disregard it and instead use the actual bills in the computation),” she added.

Earlier, ERC also ordered Meralco to explain how it billed its customers for electricity consumed during quarantine amid mounting consumer complaints.

/MUF