BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—Local lawmakers have expressed their support to a proposed bill amending the law that allows power distributors to claim their systems losses and stolen electricity from power consumers.
Vice Gov. Lambert Galima Jr. said the Provincial Board’s move was in support of the proposed bill filed by Senator Manny Pacquiao and Rep. Tobias Tiangco of Malabon City.
“We have expressed our support to this initiative and asked Congress to prioritize this bill to unburden our consumers,” said Galima, who presides over the provincial board.
Galima said the amendatory bill is timely “so that the practice of charging consumers for stolen and lost power will be stopped.”
The bill requires private electric companies to refrain from imposing systems loss charges, except for rural electric cooperatives, which can collect not more than 5 percent of recoverable system losses arising from “design fault and technical loss” as defined by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
At present, the law authorizes the imposition of a 12-percent Value Added Tax on systems loss charges to consumers.