Beneco backs review of law for lifeline raters
>> Saturday, September 12, 2020
By Delmar
Carino
BAGUIO CITY -- The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco)
stands on four squares behind moves to review the provisions of the Electric
Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) granting subsidy to lifeline consumers of
electricity.
The electric
cooperative’s Board of Directors on Wednesday said there is logic to the
observation that there could be consumer accounts that are unfairly benefitting
from the subsidized power rates intended to help indigent consumers.
The Epira or Republic
Act 9136 defines lifeline rate as the subsidized rate given to marginalized or
low income captive market end-users who cannot afford to pay at full cost.
The law called for the
establishment of a socialized pricing mechanism by giving discounts for certain
thresholds of electricity consumption as approved by the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC).
The lifeline rate,
however, is subsidized by consumers whose power consumption is above the approved
thresholds.
Beneco’s lifeline rates
provide a 50% discount on the bills of consumers using 20 kilowatt hour (kWh) a
month; 40% for 21 to 25 kWh; 30% for 26 to 30 kWh; 20% from 31 to 35 kWh; 10% for 36 to 40 kWh
and 5% for 41 to 45 kWh.
Lawyer Esteban Somngi,
board president, said Beneco could be in the same boat as other distribution
utilities whose lifeline raters included those who are not really indigent,
echoing what Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian called as “unplugged leaks” in the
application of the lifeline rate subsidy.
Gatchalian, who has
filed a bill to extend the subsidy system for another 20 years, said roughly
P937 million in subsidies went to non-marginalized consumers in 2018 alone.
He said this is because
there were rest houses and apartments in residential towers that got discounts
since they are rarely occupied.
Somngi said Gatchalian’s
call for a review is timely since the subsidy must really benefit indigent
consumers who are suffering a lot due to the pandemic.
Melchor Licoben, Beneco
general manager, also welcomed the review since he said Baguio City hosts a lot
of vacation houses and it is highly possible that their registered power
consumption is within the thresholds of the lifeline rate.
Beneco has a total of
201,378 consumer accounts of which 73,550 or 36.5% are lifeline raters.
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