75,000 poor families in Agusan to get monthly electric bill discounts

The media briefing by ASELCO at the conference room where they discussed the lifeline subsidy program. photo courtesy of May Marie Denolo, staff of ASELCO.

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur — At least 75,000 households in this province whose income falls below the poverty threshold will become beneficiaries of the “Lifeline Subsidy Rate Program” which gives them considerable discounts on their monthly electricity bills starting September 1.

Based on the guidelines of the program that was made into law by Republic Act No. 11552, families who can avail are the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and member-consumers of Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ASELCO) considered to be living below the poverty threshold set by the Phillippine Statistics Authority.

Junel Ryan Denolo, manager of ASELCO’s Institutional Services Department, said the rollout of the program was supposed to start this month but was moved to Sept. 1 to give more time to qualified beneficiaries to register. As of August 25, there are only 1,286 household beneficiaries who applied for the subsidy program.

Program beneficiaries are electricity consumers whose monthly bills are from 25 kilowatt hour (kw/h) and below. The discounts are bracketed depending on the monthly consumption.

For a monthly 25 kw/h consumption, beneficiaries will be discounted with 10 percent on their monthly bills, and those who only use at least 16 to 20 kw/h are given a 25 percent discount, while those using only 15 kw/h and below are given 50 percent discount.

Denolo cited an example of a household that consumes 17 kw/h per month is billed with P155 per month with the beneficiary’s 25 percent discount or P40 reduction of the bill.

He said most of the targeted beneficiaries are those living in the remote last-mile areas, which is why there is still low registration. With this challenge, ASELCO will ask village officials to help their fieldmen assist in their house-to-house registration campaign.

Consumers applying for the program are required to fill out the application form available in all ASELCO offices in the entire province or at the barangay halls in their villages. They are also asked to submit their recent electric bills, any valid government ID or 4Ps ID or 4Ps certification, and certification from the local social welfare officer.

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