Amidst high inflation rates, energy consumers demand representation

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At a press conference, consumer welfare group Kuryente.org called for amending the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers to secure consumer representation to protect and promote their welfare amidst high inflation rates and the looming global recession.

“The existing Magna Carta of Residential Electricity Consumers is inadequate to protect consumers as we face increases in electricity prices. Residential consumers need better representation to the Energy Regulatory Commission and other government bodies concerned with electricity prices where our issues are discussed properly and ensure accountability, reliability and affordability,” said Roland Vibal, National Coordinator for Kuryente.org.

Electricity prices have been increasing while the income value of households continues to shrink due to inflation. The increase in electricity prices is expected to continue until the following year as the global coal and fuel market continues to increase.

Residential consumers shoulder more burden in electricity prices compared to the business sector. The residential consumer comprises the biggest share of 33.7% of the total electricity consumption compared to industry consumption of 25.1% and commercial at 20.4%. Despite this, there is no representation of residential consumers in all aspects of policy formulation and direction of the power industry.

The current Magna Carta only stipulates the obligations and rights of residential consumers but lacks provisions to ensure representations and voices of the sector in the electric power industry.

“Any attempts to reform existing policies of the electricity industry will be detrimental to the welfare and interest of the public unless the issue of institutional representation of the sector in all aspects of policy determination is in place,” Vibal said

Who would win the FinTech World Cup-2022?

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Following the group distribution of countries in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Robocash Group analysts estimated that the USA, Canada and Australia would be the winning top-3 countries if the current World Cup in Qatar was not centred around football, but FinTech.

The purpose of the study is to analyse the level of fintech development across several countries - the finalists of the FIFA 2022 World Cup.

Group B’s Wales, while strong, would not stand against England to move further in the bracket if they had to compete on equal ground. English FinTech is still much more developed than in Wales (at least thanks to London being the global fintech hub). Therefore, England moves forward.

Even still, England goes only as far as the quarter-finals. While it had no issue comfortably overwhelming Qatar on its home turf in 1/8, it couldn't compete with the USA in the quarter-finals. The strong Belgium also falters from the victory path in the quarter-finals. It all came down to the penalty shoot-out, where Canada, the leader of the group, once again emerged superior (+0.5 points in the FinTech index).

One of the notable 1/8 matches is Brazil vs. South Korea, which mirrors the football championship in its outcome. Just like the FIFA World Cup 2022, the Brazilians end up moving forward.

Australia, however, turned out to be quite the “dark horse” of the tournament, successfully gaining great momentum! Its top three scoring “linemen” —highest adult income, close to 100% penetration of digital payments, and 90% use of online financial services. Together they secured Australia’s path forward out of the group, as well as strong victories against Mexico, Denmark, and Switzerland. The country ended up in a well-deserved third place!

The final match flies purely American colours. Thanks to a lucky tournament layout, only the fourth strongest team of the tournament takes silver in the championship. This is Canada’s limit: it has little ground to stand against the US, with an impressive level of development of the national FinTech ecosystem.

In the end, the USA, Canada and Australia shar

e the glory. This would be the winning top-3 countries of the Fintech World Cup. As modelled by Robocash Group, based on statistics for the years 2021-2022.

Methodology.

The 2022 World Cup participants were compared across four main areas of FinTech development, assessed quantitatively and qualitatively:
The potential of the fintech audience. The country data on the median age provided by Worlddata.info, with exception of Tunisia and Uruguay (Worldometers.info). The qualitative assessment is based on the median wealth per adult, as per the Global Wealth Databook 2022 by Credit Suisse.

Digital inclusion. Daily time spent using the internet (among 16-64-year-old Internet users). For countries with missing data (Cameroon, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Ghana, Iran, Morocco, Qatar, Senegal, Serbia, Tunisia, Uruguay), country averages with available data are used. Sourced from Data Reportal.
Consumer fintech penetration. The volume of Digital payments (made or received in the past year, 2021, 15+) from The World Bank’s Findex. The Use of online financial services (16-64, Data Reportal). Missing data (Cameroon, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Ghana, Iran, Qatar, Senegal, Serbia, Tunisia, Uruguay) are also averaged.
Penetration of the fintech offer. Both quantitative and qualitative assessments of the fintech industry use an already integrated indicator from The Global Fintech Index Ecosystem Ranking 2021 by Findexable (points). Costa Rica, Morocco, Qatar, Senegal, Serbia use average values, same as previous cases.All values were standardised and put on a 100-point scale. The final results can be found by the link to Table, Data Sheet.

Post Office opens SM City Bacolod branch

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In its continuing effort to relocate Post Offices to a more convenient location to better serve the public, the Philippine Postal Corporation (Post Office) opened another branch located at 3rd Level, Government Service Express (GSE), Rizal Street, Reclamation Area, SM Bacolod City, 6100 Negros Occidental.

On hand to formally opened the Post Office are: Regional Postal Area 6-Director Donabel Asuncion, Acting Support Service Manager Atty. Stevenson Conlu, Postmaster Rinald Rosadia, Ronald Vilches-Cashier and in charge of SM Bacolod Tellering, Mr. George Jadriolin, Mall Manager, SM City Bacolod, Ms. Julia Javellana, Assistant Mall Manager, Van Sombito, Property Manager, Enzo Benedicto, Building Admin Manager, May Castro, Public Relations Manager and Glen Sazon, CRS Manager.

“I would like to thank SM, one of the largest and most extensive over-the-counter one-stop shops for government services in the country, for giving us the opportunity to bring Post Office services closer to the public”, Postmaster General Norman Fulgencio said.

He added, “I believe the Post Office can do so much in bringing daily convenience in the lives of the Filipinos by means of this partnership with SM Supermalls on government-private sector collaboration in order to expand its accessibility by bringing the Post Office closer to the community.”

“The Post Office today is way faster, more reliable, convenient, and innovative than it ever was in decades. In an effort to digitize and modernize the services of the Philippine Post Office, we launched early this year a new range of innovations to improve the operations and delivery of the country's postal system”, he said.

Regional Postal Area 6 Director Ms. Donabel Asuncion said that shoppers will be able to conveniently and quickly mail letters and express packages, buy stamps and other philatelic products, apply for Postal ID, and send electronic Postal Money Orders, postal cards, and so much more.