Power coop plans P3 million refund

By Freddie G. Lazaro

SANTIAGO, Ilocos Sur — The 151,985 member-consumers of the Ilocos Sur Electric Coop. (ISECO) may be up for some good news as the board of directors are working on the distribution of a P3 million patronage refund.

Citing the proposal, General manager Egdon A. Sabio said qualified recipients of the refund are  members-consumers, who are good payors and updated in payment of their electric bills.

The giving of the proposed patronage refund to members-consumers for their good standing in support to the management and operations of the cooperative is targeted this year.

“This P3 million budget for this proposed program is part of the net margin or profit of ISECO last year (2011),” he said.

The members of the board’s proposal was presented and discussed with representatives from the National Electrification Administration (NEA) during the ISECO management board meeting Thursday.

Under the proposal, he said that the computation of the patronage refund for individual member – consumer is based on the total amount of electricity consumption it paid within the whole year.

“The higher the member paid electric consumption last year, the higher he gets from the patronage refund,” he said.

He said that upon the approval by the higher authorities of the board proposal on patronage refund, this will automatically appear on the monthly electric billing of every member.

This patronage refund will be used by a consumer as payment discount of his current bill in a particularly month.

To note, this is a first time that ISECO, which is one of the top performing electric cooperatives in the county, will give a patronage refund to its members –consumers once the proposal will be approved.