A party-list group on Friday took up the cudgels for Filipino electricity consumers who will again suffer the burden of additional cost to the already power rate as it exposed another 0.12 centavos per kilowatt hour power rate hike in the coming months.
The Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan (Agham) party-list revealed that the additional item on the monthly electric bill, which started in January 2015, is called the FIT-All or Feed-in Tariff Allowance to fund incentives for renewable energy.
“We heard that TransCo will start to collect from electric cooperatives and private power distributors an increase of up to P0.12 centavos from the previous P0.04 centavos per kilowatt hour, and this will be nationwide,” former congressman and Agham party-list president Angelo Palmones said.
“This is a 200-percent increase or triple the original fit allowance. Why will consumers shoulder the incentives for renewable energy developers?” Palmones asked.
The power distributor Manila Electric Co. confirmed the power rate increase nationwide.
It said the FIT-All will start to reflect a higher charge of P0.12/kWh beginning April, in compliance with the provisional approval issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission last February.
Palmones lamented that Mindanao, in particular, has been continuously suffering from brownouts and the additional charge on the consumers bills in the area will rub on to their burden.
“The Filipino people all over the country have suffered so much from paying the highest electric bills in Asia and Oceania, and yet they continue to experience brownouts, particularly the Mindanaoans and pay additional cost of electricity that is hidden under FIT-All. This is deplorable and unacceptable,” Palmones said.
Palmones said the group fully supports harnessing renewable energy sources
for power generation because of its benefits to the health of the people and the environment.
But there are existing renewable energy facilities with “greater outputs and which perhaps could be enhanced for better performance,” Palmones said.
Palmones further said that the increase could have adverse effects to both households and business establishments.
At this difficult times, Palmones said the government must find other alternatives or means to relieve the consumers of the added expense.
The Agham party-list representative vowed to look at these cost impositions for the benefit of power consumers if elected in Congress.
