December 20th, 2024
The House Murang Pagkain SuperCommittee, also called QuintaComm, will be pivoting to hearings for solutions to high power costs once session resumes, its presiding co-Chair Joey Sarte Salceda said.
Salceda released the following statement on the actions to be taken by the panel:
The Speaker, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, has issued instructions to go after price excesses in the power sector next. So, we will soon convene a Murang Kuryente Supercommittee.
The panel will be taking up issues that have already a clear way forward.
The most obvious one is the ERC’s finding of some ₱206 billion in disallowed public relations, advertising, and other expenses in the 2016-2020 period, when the NGCP collected in excess of allowed annual revenues.
The ERC already released this finding late last year. It’s time for action now.
In the distribution sector, when utilities collect in excess of allowed revenues, they usually refund the excess collections without much issue. The transmission sector, a national monopoly, should have no issue doing the same.
Moving forward, the Speaker has also given instructions to study windfall taxes on excessive profits by power sector participants and plow such resources into consumer refunds and Pantawid Kuryente.