MANILA – Senator Francis Pangilinan has filed a bill seeking to remove system loss charges from household electricity bills, a move he said could reduce consumers’ total electricity costs by about 5 percent to 10 percent.
“Hindi dapat consumer ang sumasalo (Consumers must not bear the burden),” Pangilinan said in a statement on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 2378, or the proposed Systems Loss Charge Removal Act, filed on Aug. 5, seeks to ensure that households are not made to pay for electricity losses they neither caused nor consumed.
The system loss charge allows distribution utilities to recover the cost of electricity lost between the amount delivered to their networks and the amount ultimately measured and billed to end-users.
The proposed measure seeks to amend Section 25 of Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA).
Pangilinan said Filipino families already struggling with the rising costs of food, education, healthcare, transportation, and other basic necessities could benefit from every peso removed from their electricity bills.
He said consumers should not be charged for system losses because they did not cause or consume the electricity lost in the distribution system.
The senator said system loss charges eat into already meager household incomes, noting that savings of even a few hundred pesos could instead be used for food, rent, medical expenses, education, and other needs.
The proposal comes amid renewed efforts in Congress to reduce electricity costs.
In his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. called for amendments to the EPIRA law to remove system loss charges passed on to consumers, including the value-added tax (VAT) imposed on such charges.
Aside from Pangilinan, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and Senator JV Ejercito have filed complementary measures seeking to remove system loss charges and VAT from electricity bills.
Pangilinan earlier filed Senate Bill 2124, or the proposed VAT Exemption on Systems Loss Act for Residential Household Consumers, which seeks to ease the burden on households that continue to pay for system losses they neither consume, cause, nor control. (PNA)
