Consumers are facing a hefty oil price hike of as much as P1.90 per liter this week to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market.
Unioil Philippines said in its advisory: “Expect fuel prices to go up next week (June 9 – June 15, 2020).
Diesel should increase by P1.10 to P1.20 per liter. Gasoline should increase by P1.70 to P1.90 per liter. Load up accordingly.”
In a related development, Manila Electric Co. consumers are likely to receive higher electricity bills in their June billing even as this month’s charges may see a rate reduction, officials said over the weekend.
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said this was due to the compounded four-month billing and higher residential consumption during the enhanced community quarantine as people stayed home.
Higher temperatures during the dry months also forced consumers to increase the usage of electric fans, air conditioners, electronic gadgets, and other home appliances, he said.
Zaldarriaga said that due to the ECQ restriction, there were around 2.8 million Meralco customers whose meters have not yet been read in May.
The expected oil price hike on Tuesday does not yet include the impact of the higher duties on pump prices from the imposition of Executive Order 113 imposing additional 10 percent duty on all crude petroleum oil and refined petroleum products to help bolster government revenues to fight COVID-19.
On Saturday, oil producers led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to extend production cuts to bolster oil prices.
OPEC and other oil producers led by Russia agreed Saturday to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day.
On June 2, the oil companies implemented a price increase/decrease in petroleum products.
The oil firms raised the price of diesel and kerosene P0.25 per liter and P0.80 per liter respectively while the oil firm cut the price of gasoline by P0.20 per liter.
This brings the total year-to-date adjustments to stand at a net decrease of P9.72 per liter for gasoline, P12.19 per liter for diesel and P15.64 per liter for kerosene, according to data from the Energy Department.
Zaldarriaga said these customers did not receive their bills until their actual meter consumption was read. Meralco has nearly seven million customers in its franchise area.
“This June, expect all of the 2.8 million customers to have their meters read and their bills with actual consumption will be sent. The bills they will receive will contain the actual consumption for the entire four months,” he said.
“Please expect that this will be bigger compared to the usual bill whose consumption is only for one month,” Zaldarriaga said.
He said the June bills would contain a detailed explanation on the computations made for March, April, May, and June.
“If you received your estimated March at April bills and you have not paid them, please set these aside. If you have paid, rest assured Meralco will apply any adjustment to your next bill,” Zaldarriaga said.
He said Meralco consumers with consumption of 200-kilowatt hours and lower were given a six-month payment option.
“For those who consume more than 200 kWh, it will be a four-month installment period,” he said.
Zaldarriaga also assured Meralco would not immediately disconnect its consumers.
Meanwhile, Meralco head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said there is a likelihood of a rate reduction this June.
“While collection of the FIT-All (feed-in tariff) will resume, this will probably be offset by the suspension of the environmental charge component of the universal charges and by the savings on fixed costs on generation supply due to the continued invoking of force majeure last May,” Fernandez said.
He said saving for the force majeure in May would be smaller, however, when compared to April's savings of more than P800 million, as only a portion of the May supply month was under ECQ.
Fernandez also said demand had been steadily going up as some businesses were allowed to operate under a general community quarantine.
“Initial figure this week (showed) more than 10,400 MW peak. What we just can say for now, this past week there was an increase of 400 MW in demand,” he said.
“We are averaging 10,400 MW for a week which is the highest since the start of the ECQ period. Right before the ECQ we were already around 11,000 MW. In the first week of ECQ, we were at the 8,000 MW levels so there has been an increase in demand but still somewhat below right before the ECQ,” Fernandez said.