INEC to reduce power rates after ERC OK Without having resolved the alleged overcharging issue, the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) is set to reduce power rates effective immediately after the Energy Regulatory Commission approved the cooperative’s power rate reduction proposal filed in January 2003. The said rate reduction was in compliance with Section 60 of Republic Act 9136 and Executive Order No. 119. The ERC approval was announced after several INEC officials trooped to the ERC office to clarify the overcharging issue currently hounding the local power company. INEC Board of Director Ernesto Abara, who was among the INEC officials who went to the ERC, said the decision to approve the power rate reduction “simply means that INEC had not overcharged its member-consumers.” Abara also stressed that INEC did not ask for a power rate increase. Instead they were asking for a reduction, “As it has been earlier announced by the management, INEC never applied for any power rate increase to the ERC but instead [we] applied for a rate reduction,” Abara said. The rate reduction for various INEC consumers are as follows: for residential, P0.1768 per kWh; small commercial, P0.1080 per kWh plus P3.0153 per customer per month; large commercial, P0.0818 per kWh plus P7.6715 per customer per month; Industrial, P0.3586 per kWh plus P234.1119 per customer per month; irrigation, P0.054 per kWh plus P15.9048 per customer per month; public buildings, P0.0703 per kWh plus P0.3909 per customer per month; and street lights, P0.2666 per kWh plus P0.3423 per customer per month. The said rate reduction would be reflected on next month’s billing. Meanwhile, Abara also disclosed that the alleged overcharging issue has no final decision yet. During their visit to the ERC, Abara, along with INEC General Manager Romillas C. Pascual and the three Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC) party-list representatives, ERC Chairman Rodolfo B. Albano Jr. reportedly said the overcharging issue is still being investigated. This is contrary to earlier announcement made by Ilocos Norte Governor Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Mariano V. Marcos II that the ERC had wrapped up its investigation and is set to hand down a refund order. According to Abara, they, the INEC officials, along with the APEC representatives argued that if INEC is found to have overcharged its consumers with the formula the local cooperative used, then all the other cooperatives would be found to have overcharged their consumers also since they were all apparently using the same formula. In this case, electric cooperatives in the entire Philippines may go bankrupt if they are forced to refund their consumers, they argued. Reacting to this, Marcos II said this was merely a “delaying tactic” being employed by INEC officials to avoid immediately refunding their member-consumers. Marcos II remained firm in his belief that INEC had overcharged its member-consumers to the tune of P123 million. Dominic B. dela Cruz
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