What did I tell you? I wrote here about a month ago that power rates would go up again because of the return of the hated Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA). Meralco sent a letter (which I dutifully published here about two weeks ago) refuting the column. Now the prediction has come true: Meralco has just increased power rates by P1 per kWh. At more than P11 per kWh, our power rate is now the highest in Asia.
There’s more bad news: Power rates may rise again if the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approves an immoral and possibly illegal agreement that would allow Meralco to collect from electricity consumers P28 billion (that’s billion) that it owes National Power Corp. To repeat, Meralco will make its consumers pay for a P28 billion debt that it acknowledged it owes to Napocor.
The original debt was much higher, but through haggling, it was reduced to P28 billion. But Meralco still did not pay, so it ballooned to P57 billion (and is still increasing) because of interest. The national government has at present something like a P48-billion budget deficit. If it can only collect from Meralco, it would have more than enough to cover the deficit.
How did Meralco come to owe Napocor so much? Here’s a background...
Read the whole thing.
PREVIOUS: MERALCO rate to be increased by P1/KwH
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment