Wazzup Pilipinas!?
Metro Manila (February 20) – Electricity consumer welfare group Kuryente.org welcomed the recent filing of a bill that aims to provide free electricity access to households with a low average monthly consumption. However, the group emphasized that there is still a need to increase the awareness of consumers of available benefits.
House Bill 2700 filed by Ilocos Norte First District Rep. Sandro Marcos seeks to use direct government subsidies to cover the cost of electricity for households and consumers whose average monthly consumption in three months does not exceed 135 kilowatt-hours (kWh), or whose monthly bill does not exceed P2,000, whichever is lower.
“The bill is good news,” says Kuryente.org National Coordinator Bas Umali. “We support any law or program that provides benefits, especially to our poor consumers.”
Umali also urged the House Majority Leader to review and study which charges from electricity bills may still be removed or reduced and paid by the government.
More education
Umali says the government currently has a lifeline rate program which gives assistance to low-income consumers as well as discounts for senior citizens. The cost of these subsidies and discounts is borne by fellow consumers through cross-subsidization.
However, only 334,000 consumers are registered under the lifeline rate out of 4.5 million potential qualified beneficiaries, according to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Through consultations with communities, Kuryente.org found that many consumers were not aware of the lifeline rate. Umali says the government should improve and expand their information education communication campaigns so that consumers may become informed of the benefits available to them.
“The community’s sentiments were consistent with our office’s observation that the consumer education campaign of the DOE and ERC regarding this program is insufficient,” says Umali. “We are asking the government to study existing programs to gain insights on how to improve the proposed bills to support consumers.”
The government should also evaluate the implementation of existing programs to identify the limitations and challenges that should become the basis of new policies, says Umali. He adds that the government should study if the discount for senior citizens is enough and how more consumers can benefit from the lifeline rate apart from the over four million who are qualified.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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