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/Cheaper power on the horizon
CHEAPER electricity may soon be enioyed by con-
sumersi.
Up for President Rodrigo Duterte's signature is the
ratified MurangKuryente Act.
Ahead of the session adjoumment, the House of
Representatives has ratifie<i the bicarneral conference
reportreconciling thedisagreeingprovisions of House Bill
8869and Senate BiIl 1950, both ofwhich seek to reduce
elecficity rates.
Under the bill, electricity rates will be reduced by
allocating.thenational goveminer"rtsharefromtheMalarn-
payaNaturalGasProjectforthepayrnentof the stranded
contract.costs and stranded debts of the National Power
Corporation (NPC).
Theproposgd "Murang Kuryente Act" mandates
provision of reliable, securel and affordable supply of
electric power to consurners.
lt defines the Malampaya fund as the existing and
fufure government Share from the net production pro-
ceeds--the balance of gross proceeds after deducting the
Filipino Participation incentive; if any, and all operating
expenses--of the Malampaya Natural Gas Project.
Meanwhile, shanded contract costs refer to tlre excess
of the contracted costof electricityunder eligibleindepen-
dent porver producer conkacts over the actual selling
price of the contracted mergy output of such contracts
in the market.
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Stranded debts refer to any unpaid financial obliga-
tions of the NPC which have not been liquidated by the
proceeds from the sales and privatization of NPC assets.
Thebill provides that P20Sbillionof the proceeds of the
netrrational govemmentshare from the Malampaya fund
shallbe utilized for the payment of stranded contract costs
of and stranded debis of the NPC.
TheMalampaya fund shall furtherbe used to cover all
anticipated shorffalls in the course of payment of such
liabilities after applying the P.ower Sector Assets and
Liabilities Managenieni Corporation {t SALM's) collec-
tions from privatization of the NPC's assets, independent
pewer producers'contracts, and proceeds from opera-
tions of existing assets.
This is provided, however, that thebnnual allocations
from the Malampaya fund fof the pay'rnent of stranded
entacf,cqsts and stranded debts, includinga{ anticipat-
ed shortfalls, shall be included in the General Appropria-
tions Acr
nons consistent wlrntne
Act cons]*sreru withthe nscar
fiscal program oI the govem-
of tne
ment. Moreover, anyrerraining and futureproceeds of the
netnational qovemment share from the
netnationalgovemment l\,tfalamoava fund
theNfalampayafund
over and abovethe amountindicated inthe measdreshall
remainintheSpecialAccountinthe generalfundtofinance
energy resource developmentand exploitationprograms.
Finally, theuseof theMalampaya fund shall notimpair
inanyway.theuse or application of theremaining amount
or futwe proceeds of thenetnational.lester lUlainlastas