Electricity retailer Manila Electric Co. said Monday it paid the P19-million penalty imposed by the Energy Regulatory Commission for violating the advisories the agency issued during the community quarantine period from March to July.
Meralco said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it also appealed ERC’s directive to provide a retail rate discount to lifeline customers.
“Pending the resolution of the motion for partial reconsideration, Meralco will implement the retail rate discount in its October 2020 billing,” the company said.
The ERC earlier directed Meralco to set to zero the distribution, supply and metering charges of lifeline consumers whose monthly energy consumption does not exceed 100 kilowatt-hours for a month effective the next billing cycle immediately upon receipt of the subject the decision.
ERC said the retail rate discount would provide temporary economic relief to more than two million lifeline consumers. ERC said the total discount to be provided to all lifeline consumers of around P200 million should not be charged to non-lifeline consumers.
Meralco, in its motion, called the ERC decision “arbitrary and unconstitutional.”
“The imposition of the retail rate discount, amounting to approximately P230 to P240 million, effectively requires Meralco to absorb the costs of providing its distribution service to lifeline customers on the sole ground that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on our economy. With due respect, while the imposition is indeed well-intentioned, the same has no basis in law,” Meralco said.
It said the order was beyond the scope of the commission’s authority under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 and was “unduly oppressive and confiscatory.”
“There is no provision in the EPIRA which expressly grants this honorable commission the power to unilaterally direct the grant of discounts or subsidies, which will be fully shouldered by Meralco, for any reason, much less on account of hardships caused by the pandemic,” the company said.
Meralco said the required discount was neither premised on any of the supposed violations of Meralco nor any of the acts subject to the consumer complaints filed with the ERC.
It said the mandated discount was solely occasioned on the “catastrophic impact of the pandemic to the Philippine economy” which ERC took upon itself to invoke police power and its mandate to protect customers.