Recto seeks power rates hike probed

MANILA, Philippines—A senator is seeking a congressional inquiry into the series of power rate hikes in the country allegedly due to, among other things, the inclusion of fat bonuses, overtime pay and consultant fees of top executives and employees of the state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Corp (PSALM) into the stranded debts of the National Power Corp.

Senator Ralph Recto disclosed that P217. 3 million worth of bonuses, overtime pay and consultant fees were now part of the P470.865 billion stranded costs of Napocor that would be paid and recovered through power adjustments.

“A cursory reading of the EPIRA law yields no mention of any provision prescribing that stranded debts will include employee compensations or bonuses,” Recto said in a statement on Tuesday.

EPIRA is Electric Power Industry Reform Act enacted in 2001 supposedly to stop the bleeding of the Napocor by privatizing its power assets.

But nine years after, Recto said the law failed to stop power rate hikes in the country because of many reasons, including this conversion of bonuses and pay for PSALM employees as part of the stranded debts of Napocor.

PSALM has recently petitioned the Energy Regulatory Commission to allow it to pass on to electricity consumers some m P80.9 million “performance incentive” bonus that it bestowed to its employees.

Recto said the figure was on top of the P80.5 million salaries for the power sector’s 165 personnel; P18.4 million night differential pay for the trading personnel manning the Wholesale Electricity Spot Marker and another P118 million for the professional fees of it consultants.

But the law that created PSALM, the senator pointed out, never mentioned that bonuses, overtime pay and even professional fees of consultants should also be charge against the multi-billion stranded costs of the state power firm.

Stranded costs, Recto said, are basically unpaid financial obligations of the Napocor, which are being serviced through the disposal of the assets of the state-owned power company.

“This is the reason why power rates remain high amid the promise of EPIRA because every time PSALM feels generous and gives its top executives and personnel hefty bonuses, we’re the ones who have to pay for it n through power rate adjustments,” he said.

Recto said Napocor’s stranded debts along with its stranded contract costs will have to be shouldered by power consumers through an additional universal charge of P0.3049 per kilowatt hour in the next 17 years or until PSALM’s corporate life expires in 2025. –Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net