Senate panels OK bill extending lifeline power rate subsidies until 2031

MANILA, Philippines — Two Senate panels have approved a bill seeking to extend until 2031 the granting of lifeline electricity rate subsidies to low-income consumers.

The Senate committees on energy and public services jointly endorsed for plenary approval Senate Bill No. 1877, which seeks to amend the Electricity Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA).

Under the EPIRA law, signed in 2001, the lifeline rate or a subsidized rate was given for a period of 10 years to low-income captive market end-users who cannot afford to pay at full cost. In 2011, the lifeline rate was extended until 2021.

Under the bill, the provision of the lifeline rate subsidies will be extended for another 10 years.

The bill was contained under Committee Report No. 132 signed by 21 senators.

If enacted into law, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) shall utilize data from the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA) in the determination of the level of power consumption of consumers qualified to receive the subsidies.

Under the bill, qualified marginalized end-users shall refer to any of the following:

• qualified household-beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, as regularly submitted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the Department of Energy, the ERC, and the distribution utility

• marginalized end-users who have been certified as such by their distribution utility based on criteria determined by the ERC

The said criteria, according to the bill, shall “take into account the poverty threshold set by the PSA, and shall contain an exclusive list of requirements submitted to the distribution utility.”

Under the bill, the ERC is mandated to “promulgate the rules and guidelines for qualified marginalized end-users whose meters are not registered in their name.”

The ERC is also required to submit to the Joint Congressional Energy Commission a report on the implementation of the lifeline rate subsidies as well as the comprehensive evaluation of this implementation every three years.

This report should also include a “cost-benefit analysis as well as the modes of validation and prevention of leaks.”

During one of the hearings on the bill, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian flagged close to P1 billion of possible leakages in 2018 alone in the lifeline electricity rate subsidies intended for marginalized consumers.

Gatchalian, chair of the Senate energy committee, pointed out that even owners of rest houses and rarely occupied apartments in residential towers were among those who got electricity rate discounts. [ac]